


Draclet

by EvenescentTranquility



Series: One Piece AUs (The First Set) [5]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dragons, Dragon Riders, Dragons, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-09-26 04:10:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9861893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvenescentTranquility/pseuds/EvenescentTranquility
Summary: One Piece Dragon Rider AUYou never imagined saving the tiny Draclet in the forest would lead you to your freedom.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This will have similarities to Eragon, but not many (I hope) so there will be no official cross over here. I haven't decided on a final pairing for this yet, but it could be any of the tagged pairings, or a combination (reverse harem) thereof. 
> 
> One Piece belongs to Oda. This story belongs to me :)

She crouched quietly on her chosen branch, leaning against the trunk of the tree to her right. The rough bark scraped at her arm but she ignored it, her eyes focused intently on the deer that was slowly approaching the salt lick she’d left in the middle of the clearing.

Moving slowly, she drew back the string of her bow in a fluid and practiced motion, arrow already nocked taking aim at her quarry. She couldn’t really afford to miss this shot. She’d been up here for three days already and her supplies were running low. Plus her stepmother and brother were waiting for her to bring back meat at home. They would both be growing impatient by now. Carefully she set the deer in her sights and drew in a breath.

The baying of wolves brought the startled deer’s head up, and instead of impaling it through the neck it flew wide. She cursed violently as the deer ran off into the forest. Her family was not going to be happy with her. Jumping down from the tree with the ease of long familiarity she went and retrieved her arrow.

Inspecting it, she sighed, at least it was still in good condition and perfectly usable. Sliding it back into her quiver she frowned. She’d never had such bad luck on a hunt before. She’d never failed to bring back meat of some kind, and considered herself an excellent huntress, but for some reason game had been scarce this time.

Listening she could hear the sounds of the wolves getting closer, wolves were normally shy of people, but she was cautious. Climbing the tree once more she eased herself into the taller branches and glanced around curiously. She knew the sounds of this particular forest well, having been hunting in it since she was very small, and something about the sounds the wolves were making was… off.

Glancing around she spotted movement in a nearby clearing. Using the tree branches as a roadway she slowly made her way over. She frowned as she saw a small pack of grey wolves snarling and clawing at a dead tree. Angry, aggressive growls left them as they tried to dig under it to get to whatever was there.

A flash of color caught her eye near the end of the log, glancing over she saw nothing, but continued to watch the area, only to hiss in shock as she finally figured out what it was the wolves were attacking. There could be no mistake, not with those softly glinting scales.

Only one creature in the world had scales like that, it could only be a dragon, a small one, but a dragon nonetheless. A part of her mind wanted to reject the idea, dragons hadn’t been seen in the wilds for hundreds of years. They all belonged to different sectors of the Dragon Guilds, where they were partnered with a talented human on their hatching day.

A powerful bond would form between human and dragon, and eventually the two would grow and fight together, partners for life. The Guilds then used the partners to protect their territory and keep those within safe, and to keep other Guilds off their turf. It was basically impossible for ordinary civilians to see dragons outside the grown ones who sometimes flew overhead with their partners who were called the Dragon Kin, or if you were really unlucky you’d see them at your death if you got caught in between during one of the Guild fights.

To see a baby dragon was basically impossible as they were kept close along with their chosen Dragon Kin until they were big enough to protect themselves. To see one without a Dragon Kin nearby? Being attacked by wolves of all things? She would’ve thought she was dreaming if not for the rough scrape of bark on her skin.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a high pitched cry, somewhere between a squeal and a hiss. One of the wolves had finally caught the little dragon and had its leg in its teeth. She didn’t even think, her hands were on her bow in a blink an arrow nocked, sighted and loosed before the thought had even really processed to save the dragon.

It planted itself squarely in the neck of the wolf holding the dragon, sending it sprawling on top of the small creature. The other wolves yipped in surprise and confusion, another arrow brought another wolf down, and the pack took off into the trees.

Slowly she lowered her bow and climbed down from the branch, the body of the first wolf was moving slightly and she could hear distressed cries from under it. Grabbing it by the neck, she hauled it off the small creature and got her first good look at it.

It was a small thing, from snout to rump just the length of her forearm. It had a barrel shaped chest, and small stubby legs, that reminded her a bit of a Jack Russell terrier. Its scales were a soft jade green color shot through with gold that glinted in the light and each of its feet were tipped in silver claws that looked sharp as daggers. A long tail swished behind it as it stared up at her in surprise at being uncovered.

Its neck was long and slender with a ridge of silver spikes down the length of it, holding a distinctly reptilian head. Small ridges just above the eyes had the beginnings of what she was sure would be horns eventually, and razor sharp teeth peaked out of the small mouth, as it tilted its head and hissed warningly at her, its bright golden eyes staring her down as best it could from its small height.

All in all it was actually pretty adorable, but even as small as it was she knew it had to be dangerous. Still now that she was face to face with it, she knew she couldn’t just leave it here. Dragons were extremely valuable and one this young really belonged with its Guild whoever they were. 

At this point she had to assume this little one didn’t have a Dragon Kin, because none of them would dare let a youngling like this one go off on its own. Plus they were miles from any Guild and this baby obviously couldn’t fly, its small black wings still crumpled looking, drawn in tight to its back and nowhere near strong enough to hold its weight, let alone escape from a well protected Guild without notice.

That meant that the poor thing was either wild, which was extremely unlikely as all dragons had been Guild owned for hundreds of years, or somehow it had gotten lost from one of the Guilds nearby, perhaps lost in transit or some such thing. She frowned at the thought of such carelessness, but it was still the most likely possibility.

Either way the poor thing couldn’t remain here in the woods, it would have to be taken somewhere to get proper care. That meant that she was going to have to convince it to come with her, as there was no way she was going to risk leaving and getting help and having the wolves come back to finish it off while she was gone. Plus its leg was injured and bleeding sluggishly, making the poor baby limp as it tried to back away from her warily.

Slowly she lowered herself down, taking off her bow and quiver and placing them on the ground beside her to make herself appear smaller to the nervous but dangerous creature. Sitting down on her haunches she slowly and carefully moved her hands to her belt purse, and pulled out a handful of dried venison that she’d intended as her lunch.

Admittedly she had no clue what Dragons in the Guilds ate, but she was fairly sure it was meat, and either way it was all she had on her. Breaking off a small piece, she carefully extended her hand to the tiny creature who hissed furiously, trying to warn her away, but unable to move far, cornered and with an injured limb.

Instead of provoking it further she just sat there with her hand outstretched and waited. Long minutes slowly passed by as the dragon stopped hissing and started eyeing her warily, apparently completely confused by her behavior.

The knowledge of dragons and their care wasn’t widely known, or really known at all outside the Guilds as they tended to keep things like that highly secret, hoping their raising and training techniques would give them an edge over the other guilds. However she had heard that they were intelligent beings. This one was obviously a baby, and may or may not have been exposed to humans before, but she had to take a chance as her arm was beginning to become sore.

“Hello there little one,” she cooed softly, the same way she would with a wounded dog, “I’m not going to hurt you. Aren’t you hungry you poor baby.”

The dragon appeared startled at first, but then became transfixed and slowly but surely began to edge forward toward her hand, which she held out for it enticingly. She kept her voice steady and kind, trying desperately not to give away her nerves or excitement as it moved within arms reach.

It sniffed at her fingers curiously, then sneezed, giving her a strangely reproachful look. Apparently it didn’t like the smell of the leather elbow length gloves she was wearing to protect her arms from her bow. Still it didn’t back away, instead eventually finding the small piece of jerky and snatching it away eagerly, before hobbling away with its prize as if it was afraid she’d take it back.

It gobbled the small piece quickly, and as it did, she broke off another piece and extended her hand again. Again the dragon approached her and took the offering before backing away. The process repeated itself several times, with the dragon becoming less and less wary until she ran out of meat.

She had nothing to offer any more, but extended her hand anyway, wondering what it would do. The dragon approached eagerly and sniffed her hand, then appeared confused as it noticed she wasn’t holding anything. It then inspected her hand thoroughly, glancing between her face and hand for several minutes before lunging.

She let out a shriek of surprise as it latched on to her hand, its sharp little teeth digging into her glove. It only lasted a brief second as the dragon made a strange unhappy hissing noise and quickly let go. Luckily the gloves had protected her hands so it hadn’t hurt just surprised her a bit.

She glanced at the creature who looked completely and utterly disgusted with the taste of her gloves, and she couldn’t help but feel vindicated, “Serves you right you know, you really shouldn’t try to bite the hand that feeds you.”

The dragon gave her an injured look, and she almost wanted to coo at it. It really was adorable, unfortunately for it, she wasn’t quite that quick to forgive and forget, not when her fingers were on the line.

The rapid patter of feet and angry barks and yips interrupted any other attempts to befriend the tiny dragon. The wolves were back, and apparently they’d found friends. Low growls sounded as she slowly spun in a circle and realized they were completely surrounded. Several colorful curses went through her mind as she realized they were too close already for bow work, and instead pulled a hunting knife from her belt.

Looking at the animals around her, she realized that for whatever reason they were almost entirely focused on the dragon, despite her being bigger, and in her own opinion more of a threat. She wondered what it was about the poor little thing that provoked this level of aggression from the wolves, if they just had something against dragons in general or if this one had done something to set them off.

Normally wolves were fairly shy, and a bit cowardly to boot, having them come after another predator was nearly unheard of, especially when said predator had proved it could fight back. It was obvious the little dragon had indeed fought back, as many of the wolves sported deep looking scratches and bite marks on their muzzles.

Briefly she considered running, and leaving the small dragon behind for now. Obviously it had survived so far, and might even survive again, and she could go get help. That train of thought was cut off in an instant by the small warbling cry of the baby behind her and chancing a glance back, she saw it looking at her as if it could read her thoughts, the most piteous expression on its small face.

She knew in that moment she couldn’t do it, that she was fooling herself if she thought the injured creature could survive another encounter with the wolves. Unfortunately she wasn’t sure she could survive either. The first wolf lunged and she went down in a flurry of snapping teeth and fur.

She reacted on instinct stabbing out blindly with the knife, doing her best to avoid the jaws of the beast on top of her, even as its weight pressed down on her from above. She used her free arm to protect her vulnerable neck, crying out in shock and pain as the wolf latched on to her forearm, once again grateful that the gloves gave her some protection.

She could smell its putrid breath, and the copper tang of blood in the air, and it made her wretch as she wrestled with the thing, trying to make it let go of her arm. 

One of her wild strikes with the knife must’ve hit home eventually because the wolf on top of her slumped its entire weight falling on her and temporarily knocking the wind out of her. She hurriedly pushed the carcass off herself, crawling out from beneath it on her hands and knees.

While she’s been wrestling with her wolf, the others have converged on the little dragon. She could feel her heart pounding, as she reached hurriedly for her bow and quiver. She can hear that its not dead yet, the hissing growling sounds coming from behind the pack of furry bodies and the occasional yelp of pain from the wolves enough to let her know it was alive, though for how long she didn’t know.

Her hands shook with adrenalin and fear as she hurriedly re-sheathed her knife and strung and knocked an arrow to her bow. Her fingers were slippery with blood, but her excellent aim combined with the short range made her shots fire true.

She got off three of them, taking down two wolves and badly injuring another before the pack realized it was under attack. At that point though she’d realized there was no way she was going to be able to take them all out on her own. Not when there were still at least a dozen of them. 

There was only one course of action left to her, and it was probably the stupidest thing she’d ever done in her life. Slinging her bow onto her back, she grabbed a large stick from the ground and charged forward into the center of the pack of wolves wielding it like a staff and smacking them clumsily with it to the best of her ability wading through the mass until she came to the center.

Her sudden aggression was enough to take the animals off guard, and allow her to scoop the tiny bleeding form of the dragon into one arm, and rush out of the circle of wolves. The poor creature was in pretty bad shape, but luckily it seemed to recognize her and didn’t thrash after the first few seconds of her grabbing it and cradling it to her chest or try to bite her again.

Knowing it would be the height of stupidity to think she could outrun the wolves, she headed for the nearest tree, and began to do her best to scramble up one handed. She wasn’t quick enough, and the wolves came after her, one latching on to her leg as she was almost out of reach. 

Pain lanced through her, but she hung grimly on to the tree branch knowing to let go now meant certain death for her and for the baby dragon. Once more she was faced with the choice, if she dropped the dragon in her arm, she would have both hands to pull her to safety, and the wolves would likely let her go. 

She never even considered it, glancing around frantically for anything to help she came to a quick decision. Praying it wouldn’t maul her she hefted the dragon up and dropped it down the front of her loose tunic, that was tucked securely into her breeches. Her arm thusly freed, she grabbed on to the branch with both hands and managed to kick out hard at the wolf, catching it in the snout.

It let go with a yelp and she hurriedly pulled herself up on to the branch and continued to climb until she was well out of reach. From the safety of a high perch she watched the wolves circle and howl below to no avail. Shakily she sat back, the branch was wide enough she could safely fold her legs together to sit tailor style without worrying about falling off and lean her back against the trunk.

The weight against her legs reminded her of her passenger, and she carefully un-tucked her tunic, allowing the small creature to tumble out into her lap. It was a little worse for wear, with a couple bite marks, scratches and scuffs, but it still seemed alert, peering about its surroundings and eying her with interest.

“If you fall off, I’m not going to rescue you this time,” she warned it breathlessly, still winded from the fight and the climb.

The dragon made an odd chirping noise and settled on to her lap like a strange sort of cat, apparently content not to move. Pulling off her glove with her teeth she inspected the damage the wolf had done to her arm. It actually wasn’t too bad, though she was sure there would be a lot of deep bruising it hadn’t managed to puncture the tough leather too badly, and she only had a few small pock marks to show where its teeth had been.

Knowing bites like that were prone to infection, she thanked every god she could think of that she always brought along a small first aid kit when taking her hunting trips. Carefully she dug around in the small pack that she’d managed to keep with her through everything, and removed her supplies. She cleaned the wound as best she could and tied a neat bandage around it.

She then turned her eyes on the dragon, who’d watched her curiously. Again she cursed the general lack of knowledge about dragons as she realized it would probably need its wounds treated as well. All she had was for humans, but she did know a lot of human medicines could be used on dogs, she would just have to hope dragons were the same way.

“Come on then little one, lets get you cleaned up,” she told it, carefully reaching for it. She did her best to keep it calm, talking to it soothingly as she gently dabbed antiseptic on its’ wounds. It hissed and flinched eyeing her distrustfully.

“I know,” she soothed gently, “I know it stings, but its good for you, see look.”

She demonstrated under the dragon’s watchful eye, cleaning the deeper wound on her calf where the wolf had latched on to try to keep her from climbing. A good thing too as it was still bleeding sluggishly. Fighting the urge to keep from cursing she wrestled the supplies she needed to sew the wound closed out of her pack.

This wasn’t the first time she’d had to sew her own wounds closed. It was something of a necessity to know how to treat even bad injuries like this one if she was going to hunt in the woods alone. Luckily the village elder had taken a bit of a shine to her after her father died and taught her all he knew about this sort of thing so she could continue her hunting trips. Without them she would’ve gone hungry as her stepmother was much more inclined to feed her own child over her.

Food wasn’t exactly short in the village, but her family had never been wealthy, and her stepmother and stepbrother enjoyed the finer things in life. They pretty much refused to do any work whatsoever which left her at age twelve as the main bread winner for the family, luckily she did know how to hunt some then, and had rapidly improved over the years.

She would’ve left them or kicked them out long ago, as they made it obvious they cared very little for her, but her village was a traditional one. This meant on her father’s death her stepmother was considered the head of the family until her stepbrother came of age. The only way out from under their collective thumb was to get married, something she had absolutely no interest in with any of the boys from the village.

She had just turned twenty-one recently, and the other villagers had insisted she was well into marrying age, but her stepmother kept holding off on negotiating a contract for her. She wasn’t sure why that was, but she did have her suspicions.

The first reason that came to mind was that if she was gone, so was their main source of income and then they might actually be forced to get off their lazy behinds and do something for once. The second, one she was becoming more and more sure of with each passing day, was that her stepmother actually intended to engage her to her son, her stepbrother when he came of age in another week.

The thought made her sick. Her stepbrother was a vicious, bullying, coward who often tried to throw his weight around in the village, happy to lash out at anyone who didn’t fight back.

She refused to be married to a violent pig like him, and actually had a secret bag packed and hidden in her room back home with all the necessities to make a run for it if she needed to. Which she would do if it came down to it, she would much rather live in the wilderness like an animal for the rest of her life than let him touch her.

She winced as her angry thoughts made her jab herself with the needle she was using to stitch herself with a little too hard. Luckily it was the last one and she carefully tied the thread off, smeared it with even more antiseptic and bound it up. Her special antiseptic cream was another thing the elder had taught her to make with herbs that grew in the area, and it actually had a bit of a numbing agent in it, so that after it was applied it would ease the pain. She sighed in relief as she felt that part of it.

The dragon didn’t object this time, when she carefully rubbed in more antiseptic and used the last of her bandages on its wounds. Eyeing the cloth with interest before apparently deciding it was okay and settling down in her lap again.

Seeing it laying there she was overcome with the urge to reach for it again, her curiosity getting the best of her. This time it didn’t seem to have any objections as she gently ran her fingers over its softly glinting scales, completely fascinated. They were softer than they looked, more like a snake than anything else, as she carefully traced the ridges along its neck and back, and over its tail, childlike awe covering her features.

She’d always wondered what it would be like to see a dragon up close without having to worry about being bitten or barbequed and now she knew. Honestly it was a bit of a dream come true for her. A soft high rumbling made her pause her inspection and she glanced at the dragon’s face only to see its eyes half closed in pleasure as she pet it.

“Are you purring?” she asked with wonder, her hands pausing in their ministrations to take in the contented look on its face. As soon as she stopped though its eyes popped open, and it looked up at her confused, then to her surprise nudged her hands as if to urge her to continue.

Chuckling at the way the creature was reminding her more and more of a puppy or a barn cat she obeyed its demands and continued to pet it, deciding that everything was going to be okay now, as the little dragon gave a big yawn, settling contentedly into her lap for a nap.

Once the wolves were gone she’d take the tiny creature with her to her village and discuss what to do with it, with the village elder who’d always been kind to her. Until then she allowed her eyes to drift close, her head falling back against the trunk of the tree. 

The adrenaline of her adventure was wearing off, and she was suddenly very tired. Knowing from experience that she could sleep safely in trees without fear of falling she settled in to join the dragon for some rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Also special thanks to my beta (who's also my sister) for reading through all my stuff first and letting me bounce ideas off you. You Rock!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One Piece belongs to Oda but this story belongs to me :)

It was past sunset when she finally made it out of the forest with her small dragon companion tucked safely into her arms. The trip had been a tense one. Without both her arms free to catch herself she didn’t feel safe jumping from tree to tree, and she couldn’t let the dragon down to walk. 

It was too injured to move very quickly, and with the wolves still around she didn’t want to risk it. She’d been forced to travel on the ground, all the while keeping a wary eye out for any sign of the wolves return. Twice she’d been forced to climb up into the trees for safety and shoot down several wolves before the pack would back off again.

Honestly she just wanted to know where they were all coming from. She’d never thought the forest had that many wolves in it before, and she couldn’t be sure if it was the same pack attacking with new members or a different pack every time. Either way she heaved a sigh of relief as she finally set foot into the safety of the village.

The streets were pretty empty at the moment, most people were either at home or at the local tavern where everyone liked to gather. Still she’d taken precautions, using the blanket she’d had in her bag to cover the small dragon so as to not attract any attention. She wasn’t sure how the villagers would react to the appearance of her new friend, but she didn’t want to risk it.

The dragon hadn’t been too pleased with the covering, but after some pleading, and working out a way to cover it so that it could still peer out from relative obscurity it had acquiesced.

She headed straight for the home of the elder, keeping her pace steady and nodding to the few villagers on the streets so as to not attract any unnecessary attention. Pulling a hand from the blanket she rapped politely on the door and waited only to nearly be smacked in the face as it was flung open.

Elder Kureha stood there in all her eccentric glory, her long white hair hanging loose around her hips, with a belly baring shirt and tight pants on that would likely give their entire conservative village collective heart attacks. The few who would remain cool would be extremely off put by the bottle of plum wine the elder held in her hand, casually taking a deep swig of the liquid as she glanced around to see who exactly had come knocking.

Most of the village didn’t particularly care for the Elder, but her medicines and wisdom were always spot on, and with no other doctors in the village they couldn’t exactly kick her out. The fact that she charged exorbitant prices for her services didn’t help anything. She was the kind of woman other women claimed was too scandalous to be invited around, and men claimed was too wild and eccentric to be worth marrying. Honestly the Elder was the person she admired most in the world. She’d always wished she was strong enough to be as free as Elder Kureha was. 

“(Name)! what are you doing here so late girlie?” the elder asked in surprise, pushing up the dark sunglasses she wore even though the sun had set.

“Elder Kureha can I talk to you? I just got back from the forest, and I found something, and well I need advice,” she whispered back quietly hugging her bundle closer, and glancing around hoping no one was watching.

The elder eyed her for a moment before pushing the door open wider in an obvious invitation, “Alright, but it’ll cost you girly.”

She ignored the threat, despite saying that to her every time she visited the elder, Kureha had never accepted a single beli from her, and stepped into the familiar house, moving to the living room where she could see the remains of dinner on the coffee table, and taking her familiar spot in the worn brown chair across from the couch the elder liked to lounge on. Carefully depositing her bow and her pack on to the ground so as to not jostle her small passenger.

“If it’s about that family of yours girlie, if I’ve told you once I’ve told you a thousand times, just leave ‘em, those two greedy, gutless, sloths can fend for themselves, and if they can’t the world is a better place without ‘em,” Kureha informed her striding confidently into the living room and draping herself over the couch.

“You know I can’t just do that elder Kureha. I wouldn’t have anywhere to go or anyone to rely on, the village would turn on me,” she sighed the familiar rebuttal coming easily to her lips.

“Nonsense! It’s a big wide world out there and you’re a strong smart girl, who deserves a hell of a lot better than this Podunk, backwards little village,” Kureha told her waving the plum wine bottle in the air emphatically, “and how many times to I have to tell you not to call me elder! I will have you know that I am in my youthful one thirties!”

“And I’ve told you that it would be rude of me to call you by your first name when you’re the elder of the two of us, and that I’ll call you Kureha when you stop calling me girlie and call me (name),” she rejoined just as quickly with a fond smile, “And anyway that’s not what I came here for today.”

“Oh?” Kureha asked raising an eyebrow in interest, “Well then what is it? Spit out then girlie!”

“I had a bit of an incident in the woods, and like I said I found something,” she told her, carefully peeling back the blanket and revealing the small dragon in her lap, who peered about curiously from its place in her arms, eyes landing on Kureha with interest.

For the first time in her life she got to see the elder truly shocked, as she spit plum wine everywhere, having gone for a drink just as she was revealing the dragon, and spraying it all over them. The little dragon hissed in protest, as Kureha let loose with some of the most vile swear words she’d ever heard in her life, leaping from her spot reclining on the couch and quickly locking the doors and blocking all the windows.

(Name) gently used the blanket to clean off the small dragon and then herself, wincing in disgust, then yelping in surprise as she was whacked soundly over the head.

“What the hell was that for?!” she demanded in surprise rubbing her wounded head, and absently petting the dragon with her free hand who was hissing defensively at the elder.

“For scaring the damn life out of me brat! I may be in my youthful one thirties, but my heart can’t take surprises like that,” Kureha snapped as she plopped back down on the couch and completely drained the bottle of plum wine, chugging the liquid down, “Where the hell did you get that?!”

“I told you I found it!” she defended hugging the small creature to her chest, “It was in the woods being attacked by wolves. They just wouldn’t leave it alone!”

“I see, and were there any other humans about?” Kureha asked looking anxious.

“No, none, not that came to our aid anyway and we were pretty loud,” (name explained with a frown.

“You’re hurt?” the elder demanded, standing up again.

“Not too bad, I treated it like you taught me too, and this little one as well. The wolves got a few bites in, but I disinfected them, and they didn’t seem rabid so I figured it was probably fine,” she didn’t protest as Kureha unwrapped the bandages and inspected the wounds before going to her own stores and replacing them.

“Passable job I suppose, though it could use work, your stiches are sloppy,” the elder informed her with a disdainful sniff, though coming from her the words were high praise.

It surprised her enough that her hold on the dragon loosened and Kureha scooped it right out of her lap, completely ignoring the indignant squawks from both human and dragon.

(Name) watched fascinated as the elder looked over the dragon with expert hands, inspecting its wounds, and holding it firmly so that it couldn’t bite or scratch at her but gently enough not to hurt it. When she finished she plopped the seemingly awed and cowed youngster right back into her lap, where she folded her arms around it protectively. Smiling as the little dragon nuzzled itself under her chin affectionately.

“Well, it looks like you’ve got yourself a week old little Draclet there, he’s a little banged up, but dragons heal quick so its probably not a big deal,” Kureha told her flopping back on to the couch, “The question is what you’re going to do with him.”

“So you really are just a baby huh?” she asked her lapful of dragon, in a soft voice kissing the tip of its scaly nose, which made it sneeze releasing a small puff of smoke, “Wait he?”

“Yes he,” Kureha answered waving her hand dismissively, “Congratulations it’s a boy, now what are you going to do with it?”

“How do you know?” she insisted curiously, completely ignoring Kureha’s question again.

“Because he’s got those three horns coming in on his forehead, if he was female he’d only have two,” the elder explained impatiently knowing she wasn’t going to get an answer to her questions until (name’s) curiosity was assuaged.

“I meant how did you know in general. I didn’t think anyone knew anything about dragons outside of the guilds,” (name) expanded staring at the elder with undisguised awe.

Kureha sighed and stood, walking into the kitchen and reappearing a second later with another bottle of plum wine and settling herself on the couch, an uncharacteristically serious expression on her face, “(Name) have you ever wondered why I’m so different from the other villagers?”

(Name) looked at her surprised, wondering where exactly this was coming from, but knowing better than to interrupt the elder’s train of thought, “No, I guess I just figured you didn’t care what they thought of you.”

“That’s true,” Kureha acknowledged with a grin, “I couldn’t give a damn what these silly little small town folk say about me, but it’s also because I’m not originally from here.”

“The truth is about fifty years ago I escaped here from a territory far to the north. Once, it was ruled by a kind Guild Master, who loved his people and took good care of his Guild members and their dragons. Back then I was one of the best doctors around, and had been recruited by him to help treat the injuries of Dragon Kin and Dragon alike. I took great joy in it, while no Dragon Kin myself, it was always a wonder to be close to such magnificent creatures who worked so hard alongside their partners to keep everyone safe,” Kureha heaved a sigh.

“But then he got sick, with a disease not even the best of us could cure, in a few short days he passed away, leaving the Guild in the hands of his son Wapol. Now Wapol was nothing like his father, he was greedy and cruel. He wanted his people to be entirely dependent on him. In order to do this he claimed the top twenty medical doctors in his territory, and then banished or killed the rest. Then if the people wanted medical assistance they would have to come to him for it.”

“He would give it to them, but only if they begged and only for outrageous prices, to keep his citizens from fleeing he had the rest of his Guild regularly patrol the borders and kill anyone who made a run for it,” Kureha told her taking a long drink of her wine and staring into the fire on the hearth.

“If anyone protested they were killed. I myself had spoken out against Wapol, but with himself and his father’s two previous Ministers Chess and Marimo and their dragons by their sides there was little anyone could do. Finally despite my competence I got wind that Wapol was planning to get rid of me. I took everything I could carry, money, medicine and equipment, and made a run for it, knowing that on my own there was nothing I could do, and unable to rally support from the other cowardly doctors who’d given in to Wapol’s reign, enjoying the wealth he rewarded them with.”

“However I did take something special with me,” Kureha smiled, the softest smile (name) had ever seen on her face, “His name was Tony-Tony Chopper, thus named by the quack doctor Hiruluk a dear friend of mine who’d managed to be in the room when he was born.”

“Hiruluk wasn’t able to become a Dragon Kin, being far too old and with a terminal illness besides, but he and that dragon had a very special bond. You see normally dragons don’t leave their mother’s sides until they’re about three weeks old because they give off a strange scent that seems to attract and enrage all sorts of predators, as you apparently saw on your way here,” Kureha explained wryly.

“But Chopper was kicked out of the nest by his mother, because of his strange color. You see all the Dragons up north were some form of brown, tan, white, or grey but Chopper? Chopper was the brightest most obnoxious shade of blue I’d ever laid eyes on,” she told her with a fond snort.

“Bereft of his mother we weren’t sure what to do with him, as it’s very difficult, even considered impossible to get baby dragons to take food from anyone outside their mothers until they have a proper Dragon Kin. At the time we didn’t actually have any candidates ready, as they weren’t due to arrive for another two weeks when the mother would be willing to part with the baby dragons. We were sure the poor baby would starve, but somehow, and I’m still not sure to this day how, Hiruluk managed to convince that baby dragon to eat straight from his hand,” Kureha shook her head in awe.

“We were all so relieved we didn’t even think about the repercussions,” she continued quietly, “Because when the candidates arrived little Chopper refused to bond with any of them, instead choosing to follow a baffled but pleased Hiruluk every where he went. Needless to say Wapol was furious.”

“The selfish, greedy bastard decided Hiruluk must’ve bonded to Chopper without permission, and the only way to undo it would be to kill Hiruluk” Kureha’s fists tightened as she took another angry swig of her wine, “I argued with him, and so did several members of the Guild because if young Chopper had bonded to Hiruluk he would die when Hiruluk did. It’s the way of dragons to die with their Dragon Kin, but Wapol would hear none of it, mad with power, he’d made his decision and wouldn’t be swayed.”

“Hiruluk argued at first, but Wapol threatened to have them both executed instead, and in the end he agreed to die. He explained to me that as he saw it he was dying anyway and Chopper had a long happy life with a Dragon Kin out there somewhere waiting for him.”

“Thus Hiruluk was executed, and of course Chopper survived, after all they weren’t officially bonded, and Wapol thought he’d succeeded. Unfortunately for him while Chopper and Hiruluk’s bond wasn’t that of Dragon and Kin it was still something very special. Mad with grief Chopper attacked Wapol, and while he wasn’t very big at the time, about three times the size of your little fella there he still managed to do a lot of damage, nearly bit Wapol’s face off,” Kureha told her with a vindictive smile on her face.

“Unfortunately Wapol’s own dragon intervened. Chopper was tossed away, and Wapol rushed into surgery. They had to replace his entire jaw with metal. Needless to say he was enraged, and was calling for Chopper to be killed next,” she explained, “This is when I argued with him, loudly and strongly enough to make him back down, but it’s also when he decided to execute me, and forced me to make my run, with Chopper by my side.”

“I never would’ve made it, if not for a young Guild Member named Dalton. I’d saved his life before you see, and unlike the others in the Guild he maintained a sense of honor, as I escaped into the next country over with Chopper he looked the other way, but he warned me, that because I was the best and because I was essentially stealing a dragon from the guild, I had better keep running because Wapol would be looking for me, and with the support of his allied guilds, some of the most powerful in the world, if I wasn’t careful he would find me,” her grip tightened angrily on the bottle, her lips twisted in a frown.

“I knew he was right, and so I ran, as fast as I could go, but I wasn’t strong like you,” Kureha told her with a sad smile, “I couldn’t fight off the predators that attacked nearly as well, If I didn’t know medicine the way I did both Chopper and I would’ve died. As it was we finally made it into a territory of a guild that wasn’t allied with Wapol.”

“It was during those few short hours of rest that I decided, as much as I had come to care for Chopper I just couldn’t take care of him. He needed a Dragon Kin and I was far too old, so I marched myself right on up to the Guild Master and demanded he take Chopper in,” Kureha told her proudly, “Sure surprised him!”

“He heard me out, and in the end agreed to take Chopper. My poor little blue Draclet wasn’t happy at all, but they’re extraordinarily smart, dragons are, and Chopper was on a whole other level of intelligence. I explained to him that it was both for his safety and for mine, and eventually he capitulated and stayed behind.”

“To this day it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I like to think it was for the best for Chopper,” she said quietly, crossing her arms across her chest.

“After I left him though I was at a loss. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I only knew I had to keep moving lest I lead Wapol and his allies to Chopper. Finally I stumbled on this out of the way backwater village, and knowing it was the last place Wapol would ever look for me, settled in to live my life,” Kureha finished, taking a final swig from her plum wine and setting the bottle down on the table with a soft thud.

“Never in my life did I ever think I’d see a baby dragon again, and yet here you are,” Kureha said mostly to herself eyeing both (name) and the dragon, “So again I ask, what are you going to do with him?”

(Name) remained silent for long moments glancing down at the baby in her lap, who was staring back up at her, golden eyes large and trusting, digesting everything the elder had told her.

Never in a million years would she have guessed that Elder Kureha had known and cared for dragons before, or that her past was so tragic. She had the feeling that this Hiruluk of hers might’ve been more than just a friend, and to leave the baby dragon behind must’ve been heartrending.

“I’m not even sure what I can do,” she told the elder finally, “Let alone what I should.”

“The way I see it you have several options,” Kureha told her with a shrug, “The first and easiest is to dump him back in the woods where you found him.”

“No!” she protested immediately her arms automatically tightening around the small dragon, “Absolutely not he’d get killed!”

Kureha just nodded not at all phased by the slightly hostile tone, “I figured you’d say that. Two, try to pawn him off on someone else in town and hope they can get him to eat. Which, by the way has he done that for you?”

“He did,” (name) admitted with a fond smile rubbing her cheek against the dragon’s head affectionately, “He took some jerky from me earlier.”

“Well, somehow that doesn’t surprise me, but keeping in mind what I said about Chopper and Hiruluk it will be almost impossible to get him to feed from anyone else, the chances are less than one in a million,” Kureha warned her fairly, “Unless they convince him to bond and make them his Dragon Kin, which given the people in this place I would say is extremely unlikely. Dragon Kin are a special breed after all, and not just anyone can be chosen by a Dragon.”

“Guess that means you and I are stuck together until you either find yourself a Dragon Kin, or you get big enough to understand and eat by yourself huh little guy?” she asked glancing down at him worriedly, only to receive a soft reassuring, chirruping coo in response that immediately made her smile, “What other options do I have?”

“You could stay here with him, keeping in mind that eventually he will need a Dragon Kin, and the people here are bound to report you to the nearest Guild. There’s some chance the Guild will be understanding, but most will probably think you stole him and were trying to hide him away. In which case they tend to attack first ask questions later,” Kureha offered with a grimace, “They’re rather paranoid and distrustful that way.”

“I’m not going to risk the village that way. I’ve heard of the damage guilds can do I see no reason to bring that down on our village,” (name) immediately countered.

“Then your only option is to try and take him to the nearest Guild, keeping in mind that none of the villagers are likely to want to go with you, lest that Guild take exception to you and once again accuse you of theft, and that you’ll have to take him yourself as he won’t take food from anyone else. Oh, and he’ll likely be attracting predators the entire way because of his scent,” Kureha told her nonchalantly.

(name) grimaced unhappily. Put like that, the task was daunting, the nearest Guild was at least a three weeks journey away on foot, and she didn’t have a horse, none of the villagers were likely to lend her one when they heard what she was up to either. However… “It sounds like we don’t have much of a choice huh baby?”

The dragon pawed at her gently, careful not to scratch her, and she kissed his small head in return. There was nothing for it, looks like she was in for a trip.

“If that’s your choice, it’s probably best you get going now, while that witch of a stepmother and your ugly stepbrother aren’t around to try to talk you out of it,” Kureha advised firmly.

(Name) nodded a part of her a bit disbelieving that she was actually doing this, but the other part, a part she’d long since kept squashed down, was getting excited at the prospect. The part of her that longed for adventure and freedom was rearing its head, and urging her to go. She finally had an excuse and it wasn’t going to be kept tamped down any longer.

“Where do you recommend I go?” she asked eagerly.

“Your best bet is probably the Government Guild at Marineford, West of here,” Kureha told her with a grimace, “They’re the only ones I can think of within range who won’t kill you on sight. However you’ll have to be very careful how you approach them.”

She hesitated a moment, “Why don’t you go get the things you’ll need for the journey, and I’ll write a letter to an old friend. He might be able to help ease your way if you can catch him.”

(Name) nodded and stood with the dragon in her arms and headed for the door.

“Now hold on there girlie, you’re going to want to leave the dragon here,” Kureha told her sharply.

She glanced at the elder surprised then glanced down at the dragon in her arms. She was so used to holding him by now she almost hadn’t noticed, “He’ll be good elder Kureha, so long as I keep hold of him.”

“And what are you going to do if one of the villagers sees him huh? Anyone who’s going to report you is probably going to have a horse and a much easier time getting to the nearest guild than you are. Your journey will be doomed from the start. Worse, what if your stepmother and brother see hmm?” Kureha asked smacking her in the head again, “Use that damn head of yours girlie!”

(Name) winced but acknowledged the point. It was just, as much as she trusted Kureha she was really nervous about leaving the baby dragon alone. Hesitantly she went back to the chair and carefully settled him into it, blanket and all. Giving him one last thorough petting she turned for the door, intending to run home as fast as she could, grab the go bag she’d had packed for months in case she needed to escape her stepmother’s marriage plans, and run back.

Stepping away she turned around and headed for the door, only to hear a soft thump and the rattle of claws on hardwood. Glancing down she saw the baby dragon had followed her and was right on her heels, carefully limping along, staring up at her with big imploring eyes.

“You’re so cute!” she caved immediately getting down on her hands and knees to scoop him into her arms for a cuddle. He purred happily rubbing his face against hers.

“He can not come with you,” Kureha told her sternly, forcing her to put down the dragon again.

This time when she turned for the door he started to make sad warbling sounds that immediately made her do an about face to comfort him, “It’s okay baby, I’m just going to be gone for a few minutes. Elder Kureha will take good care of you while I’m gone. You can do it! I promise I’ll be right back.”

“He didn’t bite you did he?” Kureha asked her out of the blue, eyeing her suspiciously.

“Of course not! He’s a sweetheart,” she protested immediately then stopped, “Well I mean, he tried to, but my gloves protected me see?”

She held her hands up for Kureha’s inspection, only for the dragon to lunge at them again and sink his teeth in. Again he immediately backtracked, his face screwed up in revulsion at the taste of the leather.

“No!” she scolded immediately, “I am not for biting!”

Seeing his sad betrayed look she immediately softened, “I get it. You’re hungry, don’t worry I’ll grab some more of that jerky you liked on my way back okay?”

That said she hurried out the door leaving a forlorn dragon and an amused Kureha behind her.

“I guess the only real question left is, is that girl going to consent to being your Dragon Kin when you get to the Guild, or is she going to be able to give you up?” she asked the small dragon quietly.

The dragon didn’t respond, his eyes glued to the door she’d left out of, waiting for her to come back for him.

…~oO*Oo~…

(Name) slipped easily through the familiar streets of the village, which was quiet and dark by now to her home near the center or town. Not wanting to be seen, knowing she was about to escape with baby Dragon in tow, she avoided the most popular roadways, and came up to her house from the back. Scaling the side thanks to the tree right by her window, and creeping in.

She didn’t bother to turn on the lights, having memorized the familiar layout of her room long ago. Instead she quietly made her way to the closet, and crawled inside. At the back of it was a secret panel her father had installed for her to keep her treasures in when she was a little girl. Back then it had been the most wonderful hiding place in the world. Now it held her salvation as neither her stepmother nor stepbrother knew anything of it.

Pulling the pack out she settled it on her shoulders, content in the knowledge that it contained what she needed. In it were several changes of clothing, one change of boots, a couple hunting knives, flint, a compass and map, and the money she’d managed to hide away from her stepmother and brother over the years after selling off the excess meat and hides from her hunting trips.

Having promised her little draclet jerky she quietly crept downstairs and into the kitchen, which was connected by the dining room to the living room, and froze when she heard voices.

“Is (name) back yet? I want to get this over with already!” the whiney voice of her stepbrother was easy to recognize, even a room away.

“No, the stupid lazy wench is still out hunting,” her stepmother sneered unhappily before her voice turned to a soft coo, “Don’t worry my son, she’ll likely be back either tomorrow or the day after and then we can finally get rid of her.”

“I can’t believe the Joker actually offered for her. What good is she anyway?” her stepbrother complained.

“Now, now love Joker thinks she’ll make a good slave for the World Noble Guild, apparently they’re into such things, and he offered us quite a bit of money too! Enough that we’ll be set for the rest of our lives!” the woman told him cheerfully.

Her blood ran cold. She’d always known her family disliked her. After her father had died they’d made it obvious, but she’d never thought they’d resort to this. She’d imagined her stepmother selling her to all kinds of horrid men as a bride, but never ever as a slave!

She’d heard terrible things about the Joker. He was a shady man, whose real name was completely unknown to the world, and the undisputed king of the Black Market. Mothers actually told horror stories to their children about the Joker to try to get them to behave, ‘don’t be naughty or the Joker will get you’ or ‘eat all your vegetables or the Joker will come to take you away.’

The stories about the World Noble Guild were even worse. They had a reputation as pompous pigs who destroyed small villages like this one on a whim, and actually took people as slaves despite slavery being abhorrent everywhere else in the world. The other Guilds who opposed such things were forced to turn a blind eye because the World Noble Guild was allied with some of the most powerful Guilds in the world.

She would rather die before being made a slave to them, and suddenly she found herself extremely grateful to her little draclet. If she hadn’t found him today, if she hadn’t chosen to rescue him every time they were attacked, she would’ve come home completely unsuspecting of the plot that awaited her in her home. As it was, she was now able to run, baby dragon in tow, and freedom intact.

However, she wasn’t about to let her stepfamily get away with what they planned scot-free. Instead she waited quietly until the two went up to bed, then proceeded to completely ransack the house. By her way of thinking it all belonged to her anyway, it was bought and paid for with the money she and her father had earned through hard work and they deserved not a single penny of it.

She took everything valuable she could carry, including all the food, and even her stepmother’s jewelry, but the real bonus came when she opened the safe her stepmother thought she didn’t know about. It looked like the Joker had paid her, at least partly in advance. There was easily over half a million beli in there. She took all of it, and vindictively wrote several receipts forging her stepmother’s handwriting, to make it look like the woman had already spent it all, hoping the Joker and his people would hold her accountable.

The feelings of betrayal not at all assuaged, she also took paint, and dumped it all over everything ruining it, thanking every god she could think of that both members of the family were heavy sleepers. That done she went outside with the black paint and a brush and wrote on the side of the house…

‘I tried to sell my stepdaughter into slavery to the Joker because I am a fat, greedy, lazy cow, with an obese, bullying pig for a son!’

She wasn’t sure how many people in the village would actually believe it, but she knew her stepfamily was extremely disliked. Mostly because they acted rude and superior to everyone they spoke to. She hoped this would ruin them completely, but even if it didn’t she was well out of it now. Stepping away from her handy work and splashing the rest of the paint over the lawn to attract attention, she stole away into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got the hang of the End Notes! Thanks to everyone who left Kudos/Reviews/Bookmarked this fic you're awesome!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One Piece belongs to Oda but this fic belongs to me :)

The predawn light was just beginning to filter through the trees as she and her small dragon companion moved through the woods. She was actually carrying him in a sling on her chest that Kureha had helped her make. This was to keep him off his injured leg, which the doctor had insisted only needed to rest for about twenty-four hours before it would be completely healed. Normally she would be skeptical that the Draclet would heal so quickly, but she trusted Kureha with her life, and thus believed her.

She was really thankful to the elder for everything she’d done for her, both throughout her life and last night. She’d arrived back from her former home a wreck, anger had given way to sorrow and anguish. Even though she didn’t particularly care for her stepfamily, she never, ever would’ve imagined they’d do something like that to her.

A part of her had wondered what was wrong with her. Hadn’t she done everything for them? Hadn’t she provided? She’d worked herself to the bone, going on often dangerous hunting trips all by herself to keep them living in luxury. When she was home she did all the cooking and cleaning, and never expected anything in return except some respect and a smidgen of affection.

Instead they’d betrayed her in the worst way, selling her to the Black Market’s bogeyman to become a slave to the worst Guild on the planet, in order to continue on in their lazy, luxurious lifestyle. She wondered what exactly she could’ve done to provoke that kind of callousness from them.

Honestly she’d been a wreck, and it had taken the extremely concerned Kureha over an hour to coax the story from her, though this was in part because of her little Draclet. The second she’d entered the door he’d been by her side, begging to be picked back up again, and the instant he realized she was upset, he’d become extremely hostile and protective.

He’d refused to let Kureha anywhere near as she sobbed into his scales, hissing and lashing out with teeth and claws whenever she got close. When she’d finally gotten the story out there, the elder had been furious. She’d been ready to march right down to (name’s) former home and burn it to the ground with both occupants still in it.

Luckily (name) had managed to talk her out of that course of action, reminding her that this was her home. While (name) was leaving Kureha wasn’t and didn’t want to, and the villagers would surely kick her out if she murdered (name’s) stepfamily. They wouldn’t care about her reasoning, and some might not even believe it.

Kureha had eventually conceded the point, but only after (name) told her what she’d done to the house, including the things she’d burgled. Practical as ever, Kureha had helped her sort out her loot into the useful things she could take with her, and the not so practical that she should probably leave behind.

Eventually it was decided she would take half the money, and only some of the valuables, plus a good amount of food that wouldn’t spoil and her necessities. She couldn’t travel with too much because she would have to get as far away from the village as quickly as she could lest her stepfamily or the Joker send people out looking for her.

This was deemed even more important because of the revenge she’d taken on them. They’d know she’d been home once they saw the destruction, and would have plenty of reason to go looking for her when they realized she’d snatched everything of value she had in the house.

She’d almost regretted the decision to do what she had, but Kureha had helped her assuage that. After all it was only right that her stepfamily not get away with what they’d tried to do to her, like they probably would have if she’d just slipped off quietly into the night.

The rest of the things she’d taken she would leave with the elder, who would either store or pawn the valuables when they weren’t going to be sorely missed. Considering the size of their small village it would likely have to wait until one of the semi-frequent merchant caravans came through. That way word was unlikely to get back to her stepfamily about the goods and no fingers could be pointed at Kureha.

It was decided that once she was some place settled Kureha would send her the money both from the store and from the fenced goods, so she could have it to make her new start wherever she ended up. She’d tried to insist Kureha just keep it, but the elder was hearing absolutely none of it, and told her if she tried to make her, she would come looking for her.

She’d been so serious about it that (name) hadn’t dared to argue. Plus the elder had informed her that she had more than enough to be getting on, which was true as she was the richest person in their small village thanks to being the only doctor. (Name) would need the money much more than she would because she’d essentially be trying to build a whole new life for herself.

(Name) had argued that they would probably come looking here for the stuff when they couldn’t find her nearby. After all the elder was the only one she considered herself truly close to in the entire village, and the first one she would’ve turned to for help.

Kureha had laughed and showed her the secret compartments she had hidden all over her house, more than enough space to keep the money and goods in. (Name) had been seriously impressed, more than half of those spots she never would’ve found even doing a thorough search of the house if the elder hadn’t shown her where they were. With her arguments shot all to pieces she had given in.

Kureha had then warned her to take the threat of the Joker very seriously as she traveled. She’d heard of the man even in her old country, and everyone knew he meant business. His reputation was cold, calculating and ruthless, though no one knew who exactly he was.

She’d cautioned there was a chance, a very small one that since Joker had already paid her stepmother that he would already view (name) as property and attempt to hunt her down. To that end she was told not to trust anyone she met on the road, and to avoid all potential human contact until she reached Marineford.

The elder had promised to do her best to try to cultivate the rumor mill so that all blame for her escape and hopefully all the consequences were shifted on to her stepfamily, and to try to make sure no one could catch wind of her trail from the village. But there was only so much she could do, and the Joker was known to have eyes and ears everywhere, even in small backwater villages like theirs.

Just hearing about the Joker had always raised goose bumps on her skin and made the hairs on the back of her neck prickle, so she easily agreed to not approach anyone on the road or allow them to approach her. 

That done the two women quickly set to packing, with Kureha showing her the best ways to keep her things to minimize the space they took. She also encouraged her not to keep all her valuables in one place lest they get lost or stolen.

The elder spent the time they were packing to cram as much advice and knowledge about dragons into (name’s) head as she possibly could, and when the time had finally come to leave, she’d helped her settle the dragon on to her chest comfortably. The two had then proceeded to stare at one another, neither sure what to say, as they both suddenly realized they’d likely never see the other ever again.

In the end she’d broken down crying, and hugged the elder with all her strength, ignoring the indignant squeak from the little dragon squished between them, and babbling her thanks. The elder had hugged her back for a brief moment, before smacking her on the head and telling her to stop being a baby and get on her way before any more time passed.

With one last sniffle, she’d agreed, accepting the letter to Kureha’s old friend, and placing it securely into the front of her tunic where it wasn’t likely to get lost. Kureha had then proceeded to give her one last piece of advice, and that was not to let anyone at Marineford see the baby dragon, until after she’d managed to get the letter to her friend, lest they think she stole it.

She’d agreed, and set off into the dark, with only the light of the moon to light her way, leaving the warmth, safety, and familiarity of the village for the threatening shadow of the forest. It was lucky her eyesight was so good in the dark, as they’d decided it was probably best for her to cut through the forest to reach the road to Marineford, and not actually take any of the roads straight out of town.

This was both to cut time off her journey and to throw off anyone who might be looking for her. Normally the forest was familiar and comforting to her. She’d been in and out of it since childhood, following in her father’s footsteps as he taught her to hunt, track and survive the wilderness.

That night though, the trees seemed menacing. Every snap of a twig was a vicious predator attracted by the scent of her small companion, come to try to kill them, and every moving shadow was the Joker, come to snatch her freedom away and place her in the hands of the World Noble Guild.

Her paranoia and terror was enough to set her heart racing, her senses on high alert as she made her way through the brush. If she was alone she might’ve given up, chickened out on this more dangerous route and gone back to take the roads, risking the chance of being caught, but she wasn’t alone.

The Draclet was a warm presence against her chest, his small head peaking out of the sling and studying their surroundings, just as tense and alert as she was. He helped keep her steady, reminding her that it wasn’t only her at risk. If they were caught by predators then they’d both die, and she didn’t want to think about what would happen to the poor thing if they were discovered by other humans.

There was a good chance they’d try to sell him off, or force him to make them his Dragon Kin. The Guilds would pay a hefty sum for the little fellow if they didn’t just kill whoever was trying to sell him and take him. Though admittedly he’d first have to survive a journey to a Guild, which Kureha had told her would be all but impossible without (name) there to feed him. If that was the route they chose to try it was pretty much a guarantee that he’d starve to death.

However the common person wouldn’t know that. Hell she hadn’t known that until Kureha had told her because the Guilds kept information like that close to the vest. They’d likely assume he’d eat anything like a stray cat or dog would if left alone with it long enough. 

With the risks associated with trying to approach the guilds and sell him, the second option was actually more likely, especially since there were rumors about being Dragon Kin that would tempt almost everyone into at least trying.

No one outside the Guilds knew if it was actually true, but rumor had it when a regular person became Dragon Kin they gained immortality. Not that they couldn’t be killed, but Dragons were thought to have lifespans that extended thousands of years, and since a Dragon’s life was rumored to be tied to their Dragon Kin, it only made sense that the Dragon Kin’s life would also be extended.

She wasn’t sure she believed in such things, and didn’t care much for the idea either. In every story she’d ever read or heard immortality seemed like a very lonely thing, as everyone you knew and loved died around you. Being forced to watch something like that, staying the same as everyone changed, sounded pretty lonely to her. 

She’d had enough of loneliness to last her a lifetime after her father had died. Back then she’d been completely isolated, her stepmother and brother forcing her away from the other villagers and into seclusion, by telling them she didn’t want to speak as she was grieving. Day after day she would have no one to speak to and no one to confide in. It was the most painful thing she’d ever experienced.

Her loneliness was what had driven her out into the wilderness to hunt, which had her stepfamily’s approval as it made their lives easier. She didn’t care, she’d only been searching for a way to feel closer to her father again. However her loneliness had made her reckless.

On one of her trips she’d taken a bad fall down a cliff side, and if elder Kureha hadn’t been nearby gathering herbs for her medicines, she probably would’ve died there. It had been her first time meeting the elder, who’d nursed her carefully back to health in her own home, forbidding visits from her stepmother and brother as she hated them both. Kureha wasn’t the type to put up with the airs the two of them put on, nor the type to allow herself to be pushed around.

During the time she’d healed she’d expressed an interest in what Kureha was doing at the time, which was making herbal remedies. For whatever reason the elder had indulged her, answering all her questions and letting her read the many books she had in her personal library.

Close to the time where she was ready to leave the elder’s house Kureha had asked her stepmother for payment. To this day she wasn’t sure exactly what was said between the two women, but it had left Kureha fuming mad. In the end it was decided by the elder that (name) would report to her and aid her in her home whenever she decided for an unspecified amount of time until she felt she’d been paid in full.

It had been the end to her loneliness and the human interaction she’d craved for so long. Kureha may have been gruff and short tempered, with all manner of strange quirks, but she was also kind.

Knowing the pain of being lonely and equating immortality with loneliness meant that she was not all interested in it, unlike a good majority of the world, and plenty of the people in her village including both her stepmother and stepbrother. Kureha had been right in insisting the two of them never know about the presence of the baby dragon. Who knows what they would’ve done with him to try to force him to bond with them.

It was knowing people like them were out there that made her so determined to protect her new charge. Thus even in the face of her fear she kept pushing forward knowing he was depending on her. It had been extremely hard to find a balance between moving as fast as she possibly could and moving carefully.

After all she needed to get as far away from the village at possible, with her stepfamily and the Joker likely at her heels. With that thought in mind she’d been plowing her way through the underbrush, unmindful of the noise she was making, knowing there wasn’t going to be any human out here to hear her.

It wasn’t until she heard the howling of wolves that she remembered it wasn’t only humans she needed to be wary of. The predators that normally would’ve avoided her would be drawn in by the scent of the baby dragon, and she really couldn’t afford to fight with them, Not when the darkness limited her range of view, effectively cutting down the usefulness of her bow by several times.

She’d ended up climbing several trees, which was much harder in the darkness, thankful for the leather gloves once more, as they prevented her hands from becoming badly chafed by the rough tree bark. Admittedly more than a few of those times had been false alarms, her paranoia and fear leading her to see and hear things that weren’t actually there.

On the other hand, some of them definitely hadn’t been. One time in particular she’d seen several pairs of glowing eyes circling the base of her tree. She’d cuddled the dragon close, doing her best to ignore the sniffing, woofing sounds below her, and praying they would leave quickly.

They’d kept her holed up there far longer than she would’ve liked, especially since she didn’t dare to shoot them, seeing as she only had a limited supply of arrows and likely wouldn’t be able to get them back in the dark. However eventually they’d given up and left her alone. A part of her had been worried that even though they’d seemingly disappeared they’d be waiting to ambush her the minute she was in reach. This paranoid thought kept her in the tree for several long minutes before she worked up the courage to move, deciding she didn’t have much of a choice and would have to risk it.

Later she would scold herself for her paranoia, because while animals were smart, they weren’t that smart. Even as strangely fixated as they were on getting rid of her baby Draclet, they wouldn’t suddenly change all of their set behaviors. Still, knowing for sure they were out there kept her on her toes, her heart pounding in her ears, all night long.

When the first rays of light had begun to brighten the forest she’d admittedly breathed a huge sigh of relief. While she still wouldn’t be able to fight an entire pack of wolves she could at least see them coming, and would be much more willing to attack them back knowing she could retrieve her arrows. Still she hadn’t allowed herself to relax, knowing that to do so could well mean the death of both her and her charge. 

However they had stopped to get something to eat. She’d fed the Draclet some more jerky before leaving Kureha’s house to keep him content during their journey, but it wouldn’t last long. The elder had warned her that dragons had enormous appetites, especially when they were little, because they were growing so fast.

She’d estimated that as much food as (name) was carrying, having emptied out her stepfamily’s stores, it would still likely be gone by the end of their first week. This meant that not only would they have to travel, but they’d have to stop and hunt as well, or risk going hungry. 

Kureha had warned her that it would take a lot to keep her little Draclet fed, saying that during her journey with Chopper, until he’d begun to hunt for himself, she’d often been forced to survive on scraps. Luckily (name) was a natural born huntress, and so unlike Kureha she’d be much more capable of finding them food. She would still have to be careful about feeding both herself and him.

Apparently if a baby dragon didn’t get enough to eat in the first few months of its life it could cause major health problems down the road. Dragons were enormous creatures and needed lots of nutrients to reach their maximum potential. If they didn’t get them, they would be a lot more frail, their hides less tough, their wings not as strong, their bones more brittle.

Knowing this, she could understand why Kureha, who obviously adored Chopper, had been so willing to give her food away. She had been an adult then and obviously done growing. (Name) knew that if it came down to it, she would likely do the same. She was already extremely fond of the baby in her arms, and couldn’t bare the thought that her negligence now during this crucial time might lead him to an early grave.

Which was why she’d resolved to stop at least five times a day to ensure the Draclet’s stomach was full. When they’d stopped that morning she’d given him all kinds of foods experimenting to see what things he preferred. Kureha had told her that dragons, like people, all had different tastes. Though they were mostly carnivorous it didn’t stop them from enjoying the odd piece of fruit.

She’d given him all kinds of tidbits as they sat high in the tree, delighting in his reactions to them. He tolerated all the meats she had, which included normal farm fare, beef, pork and chicken, along with the more exotic hunted meats like moose, venison, duck, squirrel and goose. He’d liked the small bit of fish she had as well.

She hadn’t had a whole lot in the way of fresh fruit for him to try, as both she and Kureha had deemed it not worth bringing. However she had, had plenty of dried fruit. He’d refused to touch the dried bananas, and had grimaced but eaten the dried apricots she’d had. On the other hand he’d liked raisins and loved the cherries, but the sheer look of horrified betrayal when she’d given him cranberries (likely thinking they too were cherries) was absolutely priceless, and had sent her into a fit of giggles that had lasted far too long for the Draclet’s tastes.

To show her his displeasure he’d actually carefully smacked her right in the face with his long tail, startling her out of her laughter. He’d looked far too smug afterwards for it to not have been on purpose. She’d been pretty amused by his antics though, and had fed him several more dried cherries to make up for it, trying not to giggle at the careful way he sniffed each one before daring to put it in his mouth.

Still it seemed his absolute favorite thing was the dried venison jerky she’d first given him when they’d met, and she’d been trying to coax him into trusting her. He’d happily snarfed it down when it was offered with no hesitation and then begged for more. Staring up at her with pleading golden eyes, and eyeing her bag hopefully.

It was only the fact that she knew there was no way she’d be able to stop and make more jerky on their way to Marineford that kept her from giving in to his begging. Once the rations in her pack ran out they’d be hunting for their food, and while she would hunt and cook more venison easily enough, the jerky he so loved needed to be smoked and cured, which took far too long to do on the go when their objective was to move as fast and far as possible.

She’d made sure to carefully seal it away, and remind herself it was only for treats, before burying it into bottom of her pack, determined to ration it for him. He hadn’t been very happy at this decision, even though she’d done her best to explain it to him. She wasn’t sure how much of her explanation he’d actually understood though.

Kureha had said baby dragons started to understand human speech better at around three weeks, when they were weaned from their mothers, but that in some cases (Chopper’s for sure) they began to comprehend much sooner. Knowing that babies developed language skills faster if talked to a lot, meant that she resolved to talk to her companion as often as she could.

It would be difficult, especially now as they were still close enough to the village to potentially be caught. That combined with the fact that speaking would make it nearly impossible to hear potential predators sneaking up on her meant it was probably a bad idea but she didn’t want anything to hamper his development. Thus she would be limited to speaking to him only when they were safely in a tree and there were no predators below, until they got a bit farther away, but she would still make sure to do it.

The little Draclet may not have understood the words, but he’d understood the actions, and had proceeded to pout at her, burying himself into the sling and refusing to even look at her as they made their way through the trees. She found this both amusing and adorable, he was like a combination of puppy and ornery toddler.

The sound of rustling in the trees close by had her freezing, knocked from her thoughts about her small charge. Instinct had her lunging at the closest tree and scrambling up the closest branch. Luckily she’d had lots of practice at this even before her harrowing night, and so she managed to escape the wolf who’d lunged at her by a hairsbreadth, cursing her moment of inattentiveness as she climbed her way higher.

She knew from experience now that the wolves wouldn’t go unless the could no longer see or smell her, which meant going as high as she could and making sure she and the little dragon were both completely hidden from below. The trick was to make sure she could still see them while they couldn’t see her.

It seemed that despite her lapse, luck was with her this time, because this tree actually had a large branch that fed into a small indentation in the tree that some animal had probably carved out. There was no actual animal in it though, and so she took advantage, wedging herself in sideways and setting her small passenger down inside so he’d have a bit of room to stretch, without her having to worry about him falling off.

At this point she would normally try to draw her bow and drive them off, but her arms were becoming exhausted from overuse, between all the climbing and shooting she’d done in the past twenty-four hours. Hauling around at least fifty pounds of supplies and provisions didn’t help either. She couldn’t seem to muster up the energy and so sat back against the tree, promising she would try again after a quick rest for her arms to recover.

The threat of the wolves seemed to have put an end to his pouting, as he quickly stretched then lay his head in her lap to be petted. Absently she scratched near his horns as she lay her head back. She was absolutely exhausted, but had decided the first twenty-four hours were probably critical to her escape. Thus she’d decided not to sleep until sunset tonight.

That resolve though was being put to the test as she lay back against the trunk of the tree, her eyes falling shut against her will. She’d been awake for over twenty-four hours at least eight of which had been spent with her entire body coursing with adrenaline at this point and she was absolutely exhausted. Even the sounds of the wolves below weren’t enough to stave off sleep, partially because she was slowly becoming used to the sound.

Dazed, she was just beginning to doze off, her fingers lightly running along the baby dragon’s neck, when a high pitched yelp caught her attention, and she froze her eyes going wide in shock, adrenaline coursing through her once more. That was the unmistakable sound of a wolf in pain, which made absolutely no sense as she hadn’t done anything yet.

Glancing down she almost wished she hadn’t. At the foot of the tree blood was spattered everywhere. It honestly looked like a massacre had taken place, as the mangled carcasses of wolves were strewn everywhere. She almost couldn’t believe it, because she knew it had been less five minutes since she’d settled in the tree, less than five minutes to go from fierce predators to piles of gore.

The culprit was standing at the base of the tree. He was wearing a strange white hat, a bright giraffe print shirt in shades of green, the shortest and tightest blue shorts she’d ever seen on a man, and black pumps. To someone who’d grown up in a small Conservative village, his appearance would be pretty shocking. Added to the fact that his arms and legs were covered in blood, and he was still holding one of the mangled wolves meant that she was completely and utterly frozen.

He wasn’t alone either, accompanied by a man wearing all white, with long white pants with a knee-length white coat over it. He had dark short hair along with a closely cropped beard, and sunglasses hiding his eyes from view. Of the two he would’ve been the more intimidating one, if the other wasn’t covered in blood. Oddly enough despite wearing white he didn’t appear to have a speck of blood on him.

“Are you quite finished?” the man in white drawled calmly.

“Yeah I’m done,” the other answered dropping the wolf and licking his hands, a wicked smirk on his face that made her flinch back further into her hiding place, “That’ll teach those annoying bastards a lesson anyway.”

“You do know those may not actually be the wolves that were keeping you awake last night correct?” the man asked genially.

“Tch, what the hell is with them anyway? I’ve never seen or heard of wolves that got so close to humans without trying to run away,” the heeled man asked curiously.

“I don’t know, and frankly don’t care either,” the man in white answered with a casual shrug, “Either way we have no time to ponder wolves, the young master is waiting for his slave and it’s best not to keep him waiting. Plus the dragons are likely getting restless, we need to either reach the village, or find a clearing big enough for them to land in to camp with us tonight.”

Her heart thundered in her chest, as she gently clutched her baby dragon close to her body, trying to keep her breathing inaudible. These men, were Dragon Kin, no doubt about it, and not the kind she wanted to meet. Not with the way they so casually mentioned slavery and the creepy way the one in heels was eyeing the blood on his hands like he’d like to continue licking it off.

“Yeah, poor Hiru doesn’t like being separated from me for long, he gets anxiety,” the heeled man answered, “Where is this village again? And why the hell are we walking when we could fly?”

“The village is due East of here, and the young master doesn’t want to attract attention, you know this Dellinger,” the man in white scolded firmly, “He likes to keep his identity as the Joker separate.”

The blood in her veins turned ice cold, and she couldn’t help the small gasp that escaped her lips, then hurriedly pressed her wrist to her mouth to keep any more sound from escaping. Luckily it appeared they hadn’t heard her.

“Alright, alright I know,” the man, apparently named Dellinger answered with an eye roll, “Yesh, you’re such a stick in the mud Vergo. How the hell does he know about this slave anyway? What’s so good about her?”

“All I know is she supposedly has some skill with a bow, he found out from one of the merchants he sends up there sometimes. Luckily the stepmother was more than happy to sell the girl, so it should be an easy pick-up. Apparently we’re pretending that she’s being married off, and that’s why she’s leaving, hence the need to bring you,” Vergo explained, dryly adding, “Apparently I don’t seem like the marrying type.”

Dellinger laughed loud and long, a sadistic grin on his face, “Oh fun, a pretty little wifey just for me.”

“You’re not allowed to break her,” Vergo warned, “The young master wants to do that himself.”

“Fine, fine, doesn’t mean I can’t have some fun though,” Dellinger countered cheerfully.

Up in the tree she shuddered in horror and disgust. Trying not to think of what depraved and cruel things he was hoping to do to her, and it was obviously her they were talking about, unless someone else was unlucky enough to have a stepmother in the village to the East of here who was happy to sell her off to the Joker. Yeah no, she had no doubts it was her they were after.

“Do as you must, but either way let’s go,” Vergo ordered firmly, “The sooner we get this done with the sooner we can be out of these woods, away from these strange animals and maybe we can both get a good night’s rest.”

“Agreed, lead the way,” Dellinger chirped, gesturing ahead of himself. Vergo nodded and the two quickly left the bloodstained clearing behind.

(Name) stayed up in the tree still and silent for long minutes after they’d left afraid to move and wondering at her luck. Somehow she’d managed to actually cross paths with the people from the Joker who were hoping to enslave her, and do terrible things to her. The only reason she’d escaped their notice was because of the wolves, who’d chased her up a tree just in the nick of time.

Seeing the men who would’ve taken her to meet her terrible fate made it so much more real to her, and she could feel her whole body trembling in terror at the thought of what might have happened had she not met her tiny Draclet in the woods yesterday.

The gentle coo of her companion brought her out of her terrible thoughts that were sending her into a dark spiral of fear, and she immediately cuddled him close, nuzzling her face against his needing the reassurance. Apparently sensing her anxiety he purred softly, nuzzling her back until she got herself calmed down and her thoughts together.

They needed to go now. There was no way on earth she’d be able to fight those men if they tried to catch her, not when just one of them had slaughtered the wolf pack that had been terrorizing her in less than a handful of minutes. Since they were heading towards the village, unaware of her departure, she had maybe a day on them depending on how fast she moved.

She quickly set her Draclet back in his sling and shimmied down the tree, making sure to head the opposite direction from the men who’d been sent to fetch her. Grimacing she tried not to look at the mangled carcasses of the wolf pack, though the copper stench of blood was impossible to ignore.

She would’ve felt sorry for the beasts if they hadn’t spent the night terrorizing her. Instead she took a moment to be grateful they were dead, it might get her enough reprieve to make some decent progress away from those men and her still potential capture.

Hoping her luck would hold and the men wouldn’t pursue her, or be unable to find her, she set out, moving as quickly as she possibly could to put as much distance between them as she could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who left Kudos/Bookmarked! :)
> 
> Just so you're aware no pairing has been decided for this fic, and it will be slow burn romance! If you'd like to see her with someone just let me know and I'll try to work it in even if it isn't the end pairing. Also reverse harem yes or no?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I hadn't mentioned it yet, this story will be slow burn! The pairing is undecided so if you have a preference let me know. I can't promise anything for sure, but I'll do what I can.

The week following her escape from the Village was the most stressful and harrowing thing she’d ever experienced. The days were long, spent pushing her way West through the dense undergrowth of the forest all senses on alert so that she could be ready at a moment’s notice to either fight or run.

The nights were worse as nightmares of the blood strewn clearing replaced the bodies of the wolves with the bodies of herself, her Draclet and sometimes even Kureha. It made for very little sleep, and most days it was only her determination to protect her little Draclet that kept her going.

She kept looking over her shoulder expecting the two nightmare faces of Dellinger and Vergo to be right behind her, ready to drag her and her little Draclet away to face the Joker. She comforted herself with the knowledge, that if they did catch her, they were Dragon Kin, and so at the very least her little Draclet would probably be okay.

She reasoned that they would know the little one would need her and would keep her around until he found a Dragon Kin to bond with, and she would likely be sent on to the World Noble Guild. While Dellinger had seemed like a psychopath to her the tone of his voice when he spoke of his dragon had been unmistakably fond, so at least her little Draclet would likely be not only kept alive but treated well.

It was cold comfort, especially since she knew that her sweet, innocent little Draclet would likely be used for nefarious purposes if he joined the Joker’s guild, but it was all she had. She knew she stood no chance against one, let alone both of them. She just had to hope that they weren’t coming after her, and if they were that they assumed she was using the roads the way most normal civilians would.

Despite being familiar with moving through the woods overall she was still exhausted, her body ached from the constant fight with the wolves who still hounded their footsteps both day and night. More than once they’d actually managed to catch her off guard no thanks to her lack of sleep, and she’d been forced to fight in close quarters with them.

The fact that both she and the Draclet had survived those encounters alive with only a handful of injuries she put down to luck, and the fact that despite his tiny body he was a ferocious little thing. She’d found that out the third day after she’d left the village.

She’d finally stopped carrying him around in his sling, having checked the bandages that morning and discovered him wound free just like Kureha had said. A part of her had been tempted to carry him, but Kureha’s warnings about him needing to develop healthy muscles at his age kept her from it.

A part of her had been more than a bit worried that the minute she let him out of the sling to move on his own he’d take off on her, fleeing into the woods and leaving her behind. However it seemed she hadn’t needed to worry.

Admittedly the first thing he’d done once she’d freed him from the sling on the ground for the first time had been to try to take another bite out of her hand, but she had put that down to him being hungry again. She’d fed him, and maybe sneaked in some extra jerky hoping the small bribe would keep him close, but it turned out she needn’t have worried.

The Draclet stuck to her heels like a small burr, never moving out of arms reach as he plodded along at her feet like a loyal hunting dog. It was almost as if he was afraid if he let her go out of his sight she would be the one to disappear, which she found extremely endearing.

She’d worried a bit that he would have trouble keeping pace with her considering how fast and far she was hoping to go, but he was a little trooper. He hadn’t needed any sort of help from her at all, scaling even large logs with ease with his sharp silver talons.

He also had sharper senses than she did, she just wished she’d been paying more attention when his small body froze and his head went on a swivel. She’d been a bit concerned, but thought he might’ve just caught sight of something novel. He was a curious little creature after all and had proved it by happily playing with and chewing on anything new he came in contact with during their down times, just like a puppy.

However a short minute later he let out a warning hiss, just as a snarl echoed through the clearing. She’d barely had time to reach for her knife before the wolves were on them. Once more she’d gone down in a tangle of limbs, claws and teeth, doing her best to stave off the attack while stabbing out with her dagger.

She caught this one in the jugular, and was in the process of struggling out from underneath it, intent on reaching her small companion. Unfortunately before she could she was attacked by two more, and was forced to roll dodge and stab as best she could while trying to keep those vicious teeth away from her neck, knowing wolves liked to latch on there and shake to snap it when they were subduing their prey.

Luck was with her, and she managed to get another before another group of two got her pinned down. One had her dagger arm in its teeth, and the other was practically standing on her chest. She could barely breathe, even as she tried to continue lashing out with her fists to get the large predator off her.

Black dots were just beginning to dance across her vision when suddenly the pressure on her ribs was gone and she could breathe again. She could hear the angry hissing yowling sounds of her little Draclet, and so knew he was alive. Relieved she focused her attention on the last wolf who had her knife arm, drawing her fist back and socking him hard in the nose.

It let go of her with a surprised yelp, and she lunged after it, throwing herself on its back and bringing the knife down with a savage fury, until it fell limp beneath her. Heaving a sigh of relief she went to look for her next opponent only to realize the clearing was now eerily silent.

She’d been thoroughly terrified, glancing around half expecting to see her little Draclet dead or dying with the rest of the pack slinking off now that the deed was done. Instead she was met with the sight of her little companion sitting on top of a wolf close to her, his muzzle was red with blood and so were his claws, but he looked very satisfied with himself.

Laughing a bit hysterically in relief she’d hurried over to him scooping him up to check for injuries, but aside from a couple minor scratches he was completely fine. In fact, he was actually in much better shape then than she had been. She’d cuddled him close for a long minute completely unmindful of the blood, not caring a jot about it at this point and he’d purred happily in her arms, cuddling her back.

Glancing around the clearing she’d been shocked to see that while she’d been taking care of the wolves attacking her, he’d also dispatched an opponent of his own, and unless she missed her guess, the wolf he’d been sitting on was the one who’d been keeping her from breathing properly.

More than a little awed that her tiny sweet baby dragon could take on two adult wolves and win, she was forced to remember that Kureha had said dragons were born fighters, and thus she probably shouldn’t have been surprised.

Even knowing this though she’d still gone out of her way to avoid the fights when she could. After all some of the packs they ran into were larger than five members, and while he healed quickly she did not, or at least not as fast as he did.

She was still healing very quickly though, much more quickly than she expected, and she knew who to thank too. In her harried packing she hadn’t paid much attention to Kureha packing her first aid kit. She hadn’t argued with the elder about doing it as between them obviously she was the more experienced doctor of the two.

When she’d first opened it to help clean and re-bandage her injuries she’d started crying again, because inside were several big jars of Kureha’s best homemade herbal pastes, teas and treatments, along with a hand written guide to treating minor and major injuries on her own that had recipes for the mixtures neatly printed so that (name) could replenish when she needed to on her own.

It had proved to her beyond a shadow of a doubt, despite all her gruffness that Kureha loved her. After all, what other reason was there to hand over not only enough medical supplies for her journey, but also fervently guarded recipes to her famed medicinal remedies so that (name) could make them whenever she needed them in the future?

It had taken her a good half hour to overcome the joy mixed with loneliness and homesickness to actually get her wounds treated, something she imagined the elder would have scolded her for. Through it all her small companion had sat in her lap and purred at her comfortingly.

He’d been her biggest source of comfort and the only thing that kept her from going crazy as her sleep deprivation had, had her jumping at shadows. He’d also been the one to wake whenever she did and purr to help sooth her nightmares away.

This was why she was in no way resentful that now that this first week was over and their supplies dwindling they’d be moving much slower from here on out as she hunted for food.

They had enough to last them probably another day and a half, but she wasn’t going to risk not being able to find game. A vindictive part of her had been tempted to eat the wolves who’d come after her and the Draclet, as their meat would be easy enough to procure. Unfortunately she couldn’t get the image of Dellinger licking the wolf blood from his fingers every time the thought crossed her mind. Needless to say the image ruined any appetite she might’ve had for the beasts.

Instead she’d been taking to the trees, keeping away from the sight and scent of the wolves by frequently moving up streams where she could. The Draclet had not liked the streams very much, having no ability to swim as of yet, but had endured the wading with little complaint.

Luck was with them. Using the stream she’d managed to find tracks for a deer herd and was using her skill to follow them through the forest, quietly murmuring to her Draclet to point out the signs of their passing, prints in the mud by the stream bank and broken foliage.

Taking to the trees with the little dragon back in his sling she’d followed their signs of passage until she finally spotted them in a small clearing. They were in luck, since they happened to be downwind of the deer. She wasn’t sure how they would react to the scent of her small companion, but given that he was a predator probably not very well. Hell for all she knew they too might try to attack like the wolves had done.

Carefully she withdrew an arrow and nocked it in her string, sighting on the biggest buck in the group, knowing they’d need all the meat they could get. Just as she was about to release the arrow, the Draclet made a loud unhappy noise, the one she’d come to associate with his needing to be fed.

Instantly the heads of the deer came up, and they bounded off through the woods before she could realign her sight for the shot she needed. Unhappily she’d scolded the little Draclet, telling him that he needed to not make noises while she was hunting lest he scare off the game.

Either her tone of voice got through to him or he was getting better at understanding her words, because by the time she was done he was drooping pathetically, tail down and wings hunched in, eyes lowered to the ground. 

She’d immediately felt like a monster and apologized to him, gently petting him all over, reminding herself that he was just a baby and so of course he didn’t know any better and she certainly shouldn’t expect him too. Thus she’d sat the both of them down to eat, scolding herself this time, because she should’ve kept better track of the time, he really should’ve been fed by now.

She’d felt even worse when she realized that, and had again apologized to the Draclet who’d just snuggled up and purred happily, which she assumed meant all was forgiven. She still felt like a heel though and promised herself that in the future she would do a better job remembering.

Unfortunately her luck with the deer seemed to have run out because she wasn’t able to come across any other wildlife for the rest of the day. There were a couple of times she’d been close, but then the wolves had come and frightened them away, or the wind had shifted, or something else would give them away.

She’d nearly been tearing her hair out in frustration by the time it came to make camp. That night she’d decided to settle by the stream in a tree close to the bank, and allowed the Draclet some time to run around for a bit since he’d been cooped up in the sling all day.

At first he’d kept close to her as she sat on a log near the river bank, bow close to hand if the wolves came, but upon seeing she wasn’t moving he got further and further away. Feeling safe in the knowledge that he wouldn’t go far, she’d closed her eyes and just listened to the sounds of the woods around her, tuning out the sounds of her happily gamboling little companion as best she could.

For the first time in a week she allowed herself a moment to just breathe, clearing her mind as best she could as she took in the nature around her. It was a practice her father had taught her long ago, a bit of meditation to sense the world around her even with her eyes closed.

It was relaxing and helped her keep her focus as it bled away the frustration of the day. Normally she’d do this every night before she slept, but since going on the run she hadn’t done it once. It felt good to do it now.

The sound of a large splash had her eyes flying open in concern, refocusing on her Draclet, who she’d been tuning out. Knowing he couldn’t swim she was terrified he’d fallen into a deeper part of the stream. Instead she found him standing on the bank, staring at her pleased as punch with a decent sized fish in his mouth.

Shocked she could do nothing but watch as he trotted over to her with it, a proud little strut in his walk that had her smiling. She felt a fond surge of affection and surprise as the small dragon dropped the fish at her feet. Apparently this one was for her, before going back to the stream.

She watched in interest as he dipped his tail into the water and waited patiently, sitting still as a statue. A few minutes later he jerked his tail, causing a loud splash as the fish flew up on to the bank and began to flop around until he took it in its teeth and sank his fangs in. Apparently her little Draclet was a natural born fisherman. 

That definitely hadn’t been in the things Kureha had mentioned to her, and so she had to assume it was something unique to her companion. She let out a happy laugh in relief as the dragon once more passed her the fish and went back to his task. If he continued to be this successful, than they wouldn’t have to worry about hunting for a few more days, and she didn’t have to panic anymore over the food supply.

With relief humming through her she quickly set to work, starting a fire and preparing the food for the two of them, feeling better about this than she had from the moment she’d fled Kureha’s house. Maybe they could do this after all?

…~oO*Oo~…

Her positive feelings continued through their second week of travel, as she realized that with each day that passed the safer they actually were. The farther away they travelled from the village the less likely her stepfamily or the Joker were to ever catch up to her. This feeling of slowly growing, not safety, but at least slight reassurance helped soothe her mind. That combined with her reintroduction to the meditation her father had taught her meant she found herself able to catch more sleep at night.

In addition the days were slowly but surely becoming easier. Her body was less and less sore at the end of the day, despite at least thrice daily wolf attacks, and her wounds were finally healed. This was in part because of Kureha’s medicines and partly because she had gotten much better about reading the cues her companion sent out.

She could now tell when he was sensing a threat and when he was merely feeling curious or playful. This meant that she was less likely to jump at metaphorical and literal shadows because she knew he could sense them coming. This also meant they got to travel further during the day and gave them more time for hunting.

Game had been pretty scarce, but between her hunting and the Draclet’s fishing when they stopped beside creeks they were more than able to keep themselves fed. Of course it helped that he had learned how to cooperate with her while hunting.

Frankly she was more than a bit amazed at his intelligence, and with each passing day she was getting more and more sure he could understand what she was saying, and in turn she was getting better and better about reading his body languages and the many little ticks on his surprisingly expressive face.

Sure they wouldn’t be debating philosophy any time soon, but little things like, be quiet, or meal time, or danger or hunting he was picking up on easily. To that end she’d even started naming things as they passed them by. It made her more than a little nostalgic, as she remembered walks in the woods with both her father and Kureha. 

Both had made it a point to ensure she could identify certain pieces of the forest. Her dad had taught her to name all of the animals both by sight and by sound, along with several types of trees, and how to navigate safely. Kureha had taught her the flora of the forest, things that would hurt, and things that would heal with the right combination and preparation.

The little Draclet soaked it all up, listening to her attentively as she tried to teach him everything she knew. His learning wasn’t the only way he was growing either. The weeks of travel had made it difficult to stop and really notice anything, she had been too focused on survival, but with the threat getting smaller with each passing day she’d finally cottoned on that her little Draclet wasn’t so little anymore.

Sure he was still only about the size of a medium sized dog, at somewhere near thirty pounds or so, but considering he’d started out at maybe eight to ten, meant that he’d at least tripled in size in just those two weeks. This development both pleased and worried her.

She was pleased he was growing under her care, and didn’t appear to have any major issues, but at the same time she was worried about how she was going to continue getting enough food for the two of them. If he kept growing like that he’d be as big as her in no time. When that happened their journey would actually have to slow down to accommodate his needs because she’d need to hunt at least once a day to keep him fed.

The other thing that was developing was his wings. They weren’t completely out of the crumpled stage on his back, like wet butterfly wings when they first emerged from their cocoons, but they were getting there. Soon she would have to start on the flying exercise with him that Kureha had mentioned. 

After all she wanted him to not be behind the other dragons when the reached Marineford. He needed to partner with a good Dragon Kin after all, so he could grow up properly to be big and strong. 

With each passing day the thought of loosing him to someone else got harder and harder, but she reassured herself that she had to do what was best for him. Kureha hadn’t said for sure but she got the impression that Dragon Kin were specially trained from a young age in order to be strong warriors for their Guilds. 

Obviously she hadn’t had any training whatsoever, not outside the lessons in nature and medicine her father and Dr. Kureha had given her. She wasn’t at all qualified to be Dragon Kin. She had no clue what she was doing outside the scant advice Kureha had managed to cram into her head before they were forced to run from the village. She was pretty much making it up as she went and so as much as it hurt she’d resolved to give him up when they reached Marineford. That would be the best option for him, to learn and to grow.

Interestingly enough no matter how smart he seemed, and how much he seemed to grow he hadn’t stopped trying to take a bite out of her hands. It was never hard enough to really hurt her, and she knew he wasn’t doing it maliciously but for the life of her she couldn’t figure out what he was doing.

If he didn’t make such a disgusted and betrayed look every time his mouth met leather, she would think he was teething. As it was he would do it at random moments, when they were traveling, as she was cooking, once he’d even tried when she was sleeping, and she’d only just woken up in time to stop him. Nothing she could say seemed to deter him, and her scolding only seemed to make him more determined. 

To keep herself from getting, what was likely to be a very painful bite, she’d taken to wearing her gloves constantly, except at night. Luckily after the lecture she’d given him about ambushing her at night had actually sunk in unlike the other ones, likely because the smart little Draclet knew she needed her sleep and wouldn’t get it if he kept trying to ambush her in her sleep. That meant the last thing she did at night, and the first thing she did in the morning was put on those leather gloves as he watched in complete and utter distaste.

Figuring the mystery of his biting habit, would probably remain a mystery since no one was around to explain it, she’d pretty much resigned herself to it. She just had to hope he grew out of it. In the mean time though one of her scolding lectures about biting being rude led her to a sudden and startling realization.

“You don’t have a name,” she told the little creature, stopping mid lecture as the awareness dawned on her.

By now he’d pretty much turned ignoring her lectures into an art, and so stopping in the middle of one definitely caught his attention. He glanced up at her and made the soft cooing, crooning noise that indicated both concern and curiosity.

She stared down at him, her hands immediately falling to pet the little dragon, who was happy enough to soak up the attention, purring happily under her fingers, as she had a massive internal debate.

On one hand, giving a stray animal a name when you had absolutely no intention of keeping it was like the biggest fostering no-no, because giving names meant getting very attached. On the other hand, he was an extremely intelligent little being and he deserved to have a classification outside of dragon or Draclet. Names were important after all, but then so were the people who gave the names.

She wondered if giving him a name might be more than a little selfish, something she would take away from his future Dragon Kin, but at the same time she was forced to acknowledge that at the base of things she was a pretty selfish person. She wanted him to have something of her, to remind him of her when they parted ways, something she could give him that could never be taken away.

In the end her selfishness won out. However it had taken her several days to come up with an appropriate name. She’d started out trying to name him something that reflected his gorgeous Jade and silver coloring. Unfortunately the names she came up with all sounded far to feminine for her tastes, after all even if he did look small and sweet now, he would hopefully grow up big and strong and so a diminutive wouldn’t have been at all appropriate.

Next she’d turned to human names, but none of them really seemed to fit. After all humans were humans and dragons were dragons, and while she had no doubts he could eventually be more than smart enough to be human the names just never quite fit right.

Finally she tried the names she’d heard in the legends and stories her father had told her growing up. Going through them one by one until a certain one finally stood out and rung with a certain rightness to her as she said it aloud.

“Veles,” she told him gently tapping him on the snout to get his attention, “I hereby name you Veles.”

The little Dragon sneezed, releasing a small burst of fire, and she took that as an agreement. It was settled, he had a name.

…~oO*Oo~…

By the end of the third week she was actually feeling pretty good about their odds of making it to Marineford without being caught by either The Joker or her stepfamily. She was also feeling good about their chances against the wolves, despite still worrying about them a bit.

How could she not? After all her little Draclet wasn’t so little anymore at over fifty pounds now she couldn’t exactly pick him up and haul him into the trees. Not when he no longer fit in the sling. Thus they’d been forced to stand and fight instead of running for safety.

While he may only be the size of a small wolf Veles was at least ten times as vicious. It helped that he’d gotten some practice in when she was hunting and teaching him how to hunt in turn. 

After the first few scrambles against wolves, where she’d put her newfound strength, speed and stamina to good use the two of them had worked out a system. Since he had the better senses he would alert her to their approach and she would get out her bow. 

If they were coming from one side he would lead and she would shoot from behind him as he was the physically tougher of the two, taking out any that got past him, or looked to be besting him with either an arrow or her knives. If they were coming from all sides they’d go back to back, and she’d take the ones on her side and he his. Admittedly he usually ended up finishing first and helping her, but that was to be expected as she wasn’t a close combat fighter and had pretty much no clue what she was doing close up.

Which was why when he sent up the alert that danger was approaching she quickly strung her bow and nocked the arrow. However this time something was off about the way he was standing, the tension in his body was different than with the wolves, and it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

She heard it before she saw it, low snuffling grunting sounds that were too low and loud to be the sniffing of wolves on a trail. The wolves howling was something she had by now gotten used to by force of necessity, and she was slowly but surely loosing her fear of them, the sound she heard next though was enough to send her blood racing, her heard pounding as fear and adrenaline raced through her system, because the sound wasn’t a howl or a snarl, it was a roar.

The creature burst through the trees and stopped, it’s beady eyes locking on her little dragon, who despite his growth looked tiny in front of this massive predator. The thing was easily a head taller than her, with shaggy brown fur, enormous teeth, and long dagger like claws. It probably weighed at least fifteen hundred pounds and as it let loose another terrifying roar she felt the name of it’s species fall from her lips as her knees began to tremble.

Cave Bear, this was a Cave Bear, one of the biggest and most aggressive creatures to live in the forests of this territory. She’d never seen one in person before, because as the name suggested they tended to live in caves most of their lives, and she was always careful to avoid those areas but she still knew what they looked like.

Back in her village, in the home of the mayor there was the stuffed head of one mounted on the wall, which the mayor liked to claim had been slain by one of his ancestors single-handedly. However seeing one mounted on a wall and seeing one in front of her live and in the flesh were two very different things.

In her mind she could hear her father’s warnings about this kind of bear, how it was enormous and lethal, that you couldn’t outrun it or climb to escape it because it could climb up after, that the only thing you could do was fight, to try to deter it, but even then you didn’t have much chance of winning. You had to hope being strong would deter its interest.

However with the Draclet’s scent probably triggering every aggressive response the bear had, there would be no backing down. If she was honest with herself if it had been a Cave Bear back then when she’d first met her tiny Draclet, she probably would’ve left him to die. The guilt would’ve eaten at her, but she knew the inevitable outcome of such a fight and her sense of self-preservation likely would’ve won out.

Nevertheless, that was then and this was now, and after three weeks of constant companionship, and all the things they’d gone through together the thought didn’t even cross her mind. There was no choice now, they would fight and defeat this Cave Bear together or they would die trying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry it took so long for this update to come out! Life kind of got in the way and between work and running around like a headless chicken trying to get myself a new car I didn't have the time or energy to write. To make it up to you I'm thinking if I have time next week I'll post some previews on other things I'm working on! We'll just have to see!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning! Some gore and vivid descriptions of a bear attack in this chapter!

With the Cave Bear in front of her staring down her little Draclet with murder in its eyes there was no time to waste, and as adrenalin rushed through her she immediately brought up her bow and loosed. The arrow at that short a distance was right on target and buried itself deep into the shaggy body of the bear, it roared angrily, it’s beady eyes leaving the dragon to find her instead as the source of its pain.

It charged forward, much faster than she thought an enormous bulky body like that should be capable of moving. Her hands were shaking so the next shot only lodged into the bear’s shoulder and then it was on her. She tried lashing out with the bow a club to try to beat it away from her, but it was ripped from her hands with a single swipe of the paw.

Immediately her arms came up in another attempt to fend it off. Bites from the wolves were one thing, and strong enough to give her extremely deep bruising despite the tough leather gloves she wore, but that was nothing compared to the bite of a cave bear as it latched on to her arm in an attempt to reach her neck.

She screamed in agony as it locked down on her forearm. She could practically feel the bones fracturing under the powerful bite as she went down under its’ heavy bulk. On the ground she was tossed and dragged around like a rag doll as heavy claws bit deep into her shoulders, belly and back, and the Cave Bear kept trying to grab hold of something more vital than her arm.

Her world was awash with pain and terror, she could smell her blood, hear the rasping snarls and heavy breaths of the animal, and feel its weight on her slowly crushing her. She did her best to fight it off but it outweighed her by at least fifteen times and she was nowhere near strong enough.

The bear finally found the right spot and latched on to her head as she tried to protect her vulnerable neck, and she could feel the pressure of those enormous jaws, and vaguely wondered if her skull was about to squish like a watermelon.

She tried to keep fighting, but she had to wonder if this was it. If this was the way she died. She wasn’t about to give up though, because the moment she did the Cave Bear would immediately turn to what it really wanted, her little Draclet, her Veles. She couldn’t let that happen, so even as dark spots leapt across her vision and the pain had her in so much agony she couldn’t see straight she continued to struggle, to fight, praying for a miracle.

The snarling, hissing roar she’d begun to associate with Veles’ battle cry caught her attention over the grunting snarls of the bear, and she fought the urge to cry, trying to gather enough oxygen in her lungs to tell him to run away, to leave, because this was a fight they just couldn’t win. She couldn’t though, couldn’t get the breath she needed.

A roar of fury that felt like it shook the earth let her know Veles was on the attack as the Cave Bear lunged away from her, stumbling back and snarling in pain. Her mind was a bit dazed, but the sound of squealing, hissing roars spurred her into motion. She struggled, trying to get to her feet, realizing that more than a few things were broken, and that she could barely see.

Blood was everywhere, pouring down her face, into her eyes and mouth. She was dizzy and in pain. She couldn’t seem to draw breath into her lungs and she coughed, feeling more blood spatter from her lips. She couldn’t get up, struggling again and again to get to her feet, but not quite making it.

The crimson in her eyes was making it hard to see, but she could make out the glinting Jade and Silver of her little Draclet sometimes. He appeared to be clinging to the Cave Bear’s back with all his might, sharp teeth and claws dug in tight. The bear was thrashing around the clearing like a bucking bronco trying to dislodge him, but he was hanging in there.

She stumbled again, her mind finally registering that she probably wasn’t going to be able to get there, even as she frantically scrubbed the blood from her eyes and tried to think of something anything she could do. It was the pained frantic squealing hissing sound that finally managed to bring her to her feet. It was a sound she’d heard only once, on the day she’d met her little Veles when the wolf had him in his teeth.

Sure enough he’d been dislodged, and she was just in time to see him go flying, hitting the ground with a sickening thud. She could feel herself screaming, begging her little Draclet to move, to run as the Cave Bear advanced. She breathed a sigh of relief as he wobbled to his feet, proving he wasn’t dead, but he couldn’t seem to move, his leg was dragging behind him obviously broken. He couldn’t escape, as the Cave Bear reared on its back legs to give it a finishing blow.

With a strength she hadn’t known she had she let out a wild cry half running half stumbling across the gap between herself and the bear, pulling out two daggers from her belt as she ran and threw herself on its back. She used the daggers like picks to climb up to its neck as it roared and thrashed in agony and rage still balanced on its hind legs. Using one dagger to hold her place on its back freed her other arm to stab at its’ neck over and over as best she could trying to get it down, get it away, anything.

She could feel it stumbling around beneath her, but she couldn’t focus on that, hanging on as she was with as much determination as she could muster. A scream of agony was forced from her lips as the bear staggered backwards and body slammed her into a tree. She could feel several things snap painfully, and was forced to release her hold on the dagger, as her vision began swim.

She slumped down the tree as the bear staggered forward, heading back towards her Draclet, but it almost looked as if it was drunk. Its steps were slow and unsteady, and then to her disbelieving eyes it slowly began to slump to the ground just a few feet in front of her Draclet. It moved no further.

A part of her desperately wanted to laugh, as ridiculous as that thought was, in sheer incredulity that the beastly thing was down. Somehow they’d done it, they’d won. Unfortunately she couldn’t muster up the energy, the adrenalin was fading, and so was she.

Though her vision was becoming too blurry and dark to see much, she could make out the form of her Veles as he slowly hobbled over to her, soft keening noises of pain escaping his mouth. She wanted to reach out, to comfort him, to tend his wounds to do something, but her body couldn’t move, every limb felt as if it was weighted down by lead.

Even as his weight settled on her thighs his face nuzzling against hers as pathetic whining noises left his throat there was nothing she could do. She understood then, what was happening. She was dying. There was nothing else for it. There was no one around to save her. There was nothing she could do.

“Sorry,” the word was a rasped whisper that she could barely choke out through blood-drenched lips. It was an apology for everything, for not being strong enough, for not getting him to Marineford like she promised, for leaving him all alone to fend for himself. There was nothing else she could do. She just had to hope that he’d leave, that someone else would find him, or he’d find his own way to a Guild. He could hunt now, was perfectly capable of feeding himself, she just prayed she’d taught him enough to survive without her.

It was her last thought before the blackness took her.

…~oO*Oo~…

What followed was a haze to her, bits and pieces as she swam in and out of consciousness. The feel of her body moving over the ground, the soft whimpering sounds of her Draclet, the smell of rain, and pain, so much pain.

When she woke again pain was all she registered, that and the dryness in her throat, as she coughed and sobbed slightly, briefly wondering why she wasn’t dead. A part of her definitely wanted to die, so much pain, she would be writhing in agony if even the thought of writhing didn’t send painful spasms through her body.

She screamed and screamed and screamed, until her throat was raw and bleeding as it seemed to be the only outlet for her pain. Even as she screamed she could feel something, the only thing that wasn’t pain, a soft wet sensation that she would later identify as Veles tongue. For now though she had no thoughts of anything but the fire burning through every little piece of her, roaring through her blood like lava.

As the darkness came she welcomed it, embracing the painless escape. She wasn’t sure how much time passed. However she did eventually make it to consciousness again. This time though she was able to think past the pain, and a single raspy word passed her dry cracked lips, “Veles?”

A soft purring sound was her answer, and she slowly pried her eyes open to see the dragon above her, peering down with anxious golden eyes. When he saw her peering back, he purred even harder rubbing his face against hers. 

“Hi baby,” she croaked nuzzling back as best she could before slowly trying to push herself into a sitting position. Luckily there was a conveniently placed boulder to rest her back against otherwise she never would’ve made it, the pain leaving her gasping for breath for long moments after ward.

Glancing around she realized she was in a small cave, about ten feet across and twenty feet deep, with rocks scattered around. It was fairly dark inside, the only light filtering in through the vines that were covering the mouth of the cave. She could hear running water though. Her head was a bit fuzzy, so it took her a minute to realize she wasn’t where she’d been when unconsciousness took her, and so, someone must have moved her.

Veles was the only one around though, so it must’ve been him. It was hard to believe, but it was the only explanation she had. What he’d done to keep her alive she didn’t know. She wished she knew more of dragon lore though because there was no doubt in her mind she was supposed to be dead. A part of her felt numb and detached, not quite processing, and she wondered absently if she was in shock.

No human should’ve survived a fight like that, and yet here she was. Plus for her to be feeling this well? Though well probably wasn’t the right word as she still felt like she’d been beaten all to hell, a hundred times worse than any of the wolf attacks. For that to happen it had to have been days, maybe even weeks of recovery, which made no sense.

If she hadn’t bled out from external or internal injuries she should’ve died of starvation or dehydration, and while she was feeling extremely thirsty, and a bit hungry as well, nothing seemed too bad. This was some kind of miracle, and probably one she would never understand but she did know who to thank.

Weakly she ran her hands over her little Draclet soft praises coming from her lips as he purred the sound making her vibrate a bit as he leaned into her hands. It quickly became obvious that she must’ve been out for quite some time, because Veles had definitely grown. He was at least twenty pounds heavier than before and if she was standing she’d bet he was up to her hips height wise.

The other thing he’d gained made her want to cry, several silvery scars ran along his flanks, and there were a couple on his face too. She knew it had to be because the injuries from the Cave Bear hadn’t been treated, and couldn’t help the wave of guilt that washed through her.

Still she knew after that fight she should just be grateful both of them were alive. She wanted to question, but there was no way to get any answers. She would just have to accept that a miracle or some Dragon magic had occurred and leave it at that.

Knowing that she couldn’t leave her injuries unattended for any longer she glanced around uncertainly. Shock coursed through her as she saw all the things they’d had with them were in the cave, all her bags, hell even her quiver and bow that she knew had been dropped in the clearing.

She gaped at the not so little Draclet as he cuddled into her side so close it was like he was trying to become one with her. She knew he was smart, but she never would’ve guessed he was smart enough for this. Still she was extremely grateful, if their things were there that meant so was the first aid kit.

“Veles,” she croaked, the sound was harsh, her throat raw from screaming, or so she assumed, but the little Draclet’s head popped right up and he looked at her for a second before scrambling to his feet. She watched in surprise as he went over to their things, grabbed something and then moved outside the cave.

She was so shocked that she didn’t even have the time, with her still foggy brain, to process that she should probably go after him, not leave him alone, when he was back, carefully holding an obviously full water skin in his mouth. He stared at her obviously waiting for her to take it.

Hysterical laughter bubbled over her lips and spilled in a torrent, echoing eerily off the walls of the cave and making Veles jump in surprise. Laughter quickly turned to tears though as she tried to process everything that had happened. She wasn’t sure why this show of intelligence from her Draclet who’d obviously been taking care of her pushed her over the edge of shock and into hysteria, but she did know he was a great comfort as she wrapped her arms around his neck and just sobbed.

He purred and cooed at her until it felt like her whole body was vibrating with it. Slowly but surely the tears stopped though, giving way to practicality because she really couldn’t afford to be sitting here crying, her injuries still needed treating and her Draclet needed her to be strong. With an extreme effort she managed to pull herself back together.

She carefully reached for the water skin, not quite realizing how thirsty she’d been until the water hit her tongue, and then began to gulp it down, before realizing she should probably be drinking in sips. Carefully setting it down she saw Veles staring at her with worried eyes.

“It’s okay,” she assured him, “I’m okay, we’re alive. I don’t know how or why but we are, and that’s what matters.”

Slowly Veles nodded as if he understood and she gaped at him in shock for a moment before carefully trying, “Veles do you understand what I’m saying?”

Again with the slow nod. Disbelief and confusion warred in her mind as she stared at the Dragon. There was no way he should’ve been able to understand. Before the fight with the Cave Bear he’d only understood the basics, and even if it had been a month since she’d first been unconscious there was no one around to teach him or help him practice, so there’s no way he should’ve advanced.

A part of her wanted to dismiss this all as a strange dream, but she hurt far too much for that, instead she decided to try something else, “Veles do you like cranberries?”

The extremely affronted look on his face at the question and the rapid shaking of his head “no” made the answer pretty obvious, and forced her to put her disbelief on hold. However if he could understand her then maybe… “Veles do you know what happened to me? I should be dead, and you definitely shouldn’t be able to understand me speaking to you.”

The dragon gave a pained whine, pressing his face against hers at the mention of her death, nuzzling against her affectionately.

“I know lovey, I love you too, but that doesn’t change the fact that normal humans don’t survive those injuries so do you know how I did?” she tried again. She couldn’t quite get a read on his face, but the closest she could get was frustrated, as he gave a strange almost shrugging motion of his shoulders and wings.

“You don’t know?” she guessed, “Or just can’t explain.”

He nodded in agreement and she let out a sigh, “Alright, understandable, guess I’ll just put it down to a miracle huh?”

He nodded again and she smiled at him, reaching to pet him only to wince again. Reminded of her injuries she asked, “Can you bring me the first aid kit love?”

Immediately he trotted off, and began rummaging around in the bag, eventually finding the requested item and carefully bringing it over to her, “Thanks love.”

Opening the kit she began to treat her injuries, deciding to start with her feet and work her way up, not bothering with modesty and using her knife to cut her ruined clothing off. The only thing spared from this rough treatment was the belt around her waist as the only thing undamaged.

Luckily the letter she had for Kureha’s friend in Marineford was still intact, though a bit blood spattered. She winced and hoped the recipient wouldn’t mind too much. Carefully setting that aside she began to assess the damage.

Her lower torso and stomach were covered in a myriad of claw marks and scrapes. Most of them had actually scabbed nicely to her surprise, but there were definitely a few that were infected. The worst of which was actually a claw mark that went from her right shoulder, across the tops of her breasts and ended just below her left armpit. It was oozing pus.

Thankfully she had Kureha’s disinfectant, and was able to slather it all over both that injury and all the rest including the ones that looked okay just in case. She couldn’t reach her back very well, not without agony, but it didn’t feel like there were too many injuries back there, which made sense considering the bear had been on her front.

Everything that wasn’t scraped was bruised, and after disinfecting and bandaging the scrapes she pretty much slathered herself with the bruise balm, thankful that Kureha had thought to pack so much of it. 

She was much more careful with the wounds to her face and neck, wincing at the deep puncture marks from the bear’s teeth scattered around her skull. She had to do that part by feel, working around her tangled bloodied hair to gently disinfect and bandage them. She was going to have some wicked looking scars she was sure, including one that gashed across the side of her face, from her hairline through her left eyebrow to her left ear. She was just thankful she hadn’t lost the eye. That done she faced down her biggest injury.

It was a good thing she was ambidextrous, because she’d had to completely avoid using her left arm the entire time she was dressing her wounds. This was the arm the Cave Bear had bitten down on. It wasn’t shattered the way she was sure it had been, but it was broken in a couple of places and her shoulder was definitely dislocated from when he’d been yanking her around by it.

It was a good thing Veles could understand her now because she wouldn’t have been able to fix it without him. He helped her by finding the right size and thickness of sticks she’d need to splint the arm, and also provided the pressure to help her pop her shoulder back in. Afterwards she’d only had the barest of time to praise him for his work before passing out again, having only managed to complete the entire process on her own thanks to the mild painkillers Kureha had sent along.

In the days that followed she was weak as a newborn kitten, as she slowly recovered. It was a bit ironic that she had been taking care of Veles, and now he was the one taking care of her, fetching the water and bringing back both fish and small game for them to eat. Still she felt like the two of them bonded over it, growing closer with each passing day.

About five days after she first woke up and was able to treat herself she was feeling as good as new, well rested and ready to go. She put down the fact that everything had healed, including her broken arm, down to a miracle, or Veles influence.

She was sure it had to be him, because even Kureha’s medicines didn’t work that well. The fact that she had only the barest of scars to show for the fact that she’d almost died was a miracle that she was fully prepared to thank her little Draclet for. Veles just shrugged off her praise and thanks, lavishing her with love, cuddles and purrs, refusing to leave her side.

He was more than a bit disappointed to no longer fit in her lap, but settled for laying close instead. It was nice, especially when it got colder at night, because he was a little furnace.

They didn’t spend those five days of recovery just lounging around the cave though. She’d pushed herself to the limits every day trying to hurry along her recovery as best she could, and to do that she had to be up and moving.

On the first day she managed to wobble her way out of the cave with the help of a large walking stick she found the reason they hadn’t been bothered by wolves or any other predators for that matter. It turned out their cave was really close to the clearing they’d fought the bear in, not even ten feet away.

The carcass of the bear still lay where it had fallen, an intimidating sight to be sure. Seeing it again she was reminded all over that it was a miracle the two of them were alive. It was huge and fierce looking even in death. The fact that something had managed to take it down had kept the other predators at bay, helped along by the fact that the stream and cave had masked their scent.

Veles had been surprised and curious as she brought her knife out and began cutting out the bear’s teeth and claws and then settled in to skin the thing until she explained. The Cave Bear was a major trophy and a major victory for them, it didn’t feel right to just leave it there.

He’d agreed it was a major triumph for the two of them, even if she’d almost died, and had been proud to sport the necklace she made for him out of the teeth and claws, though that might’ve been because it matched the one she’d made for herself. She kept the spares in a small pouch in case she thought of a use for them someday. She also scraped the fur clean and used her knowledge during those days to turn it into a blanket for the two of them.

Outside their Cave Bear harvesting, she’d also been helping Veles get used to his wings now that they were unfurled properly and ready for flight. It was rough going at first, but he was slowly getting the hang of getting off the ground for a bit by the time they were ready to go.

The next week of travel was the easiest one they had yet experienced. Something about the battle with the Cave Bear had changed her, changed both of them. When the wolves came they never ran, but fought viciously. Once there was even a pack of fifteen, and yet they still triumphed with only a few minor scratches. She was a lot physically stronger she knew, and her hearing, sight, and sense of smell felt extremely enhanced.

However those weren’t the biggest changes. The biggest change was actually in how well the two of them worked together. They were perfectly in synch as they fought. She knew where he was and what he was doing at all times, and was able to move with him to ensure both their backs were covered.

They also tended to know what the other was thinking, and sometimes would do things instinctively without using words. The way she’d pass him things he wanted, or he’d fetch things for her almost before she knew she wanted them was strange. However she wasn’t about to balk.

At this point Veles was the closest she’d ever been to anyone, even Kureha and her father weren’t closer despite loving both dearly. She was pretty sure life-threatening experiences could and did cause bonds, and those between her and Veles were deeper than anything she’d ever experienced. He was her best friend and family all wrapped into one scaly jade package.

Two weeks after the Cave Bear attack they finally cleared the forest and hit a road. It seemed luck was with them, as they came out near a signpost that indicated Marineford was about a week’s journey ahead.

 

From then on they were able to travel next to the road, though by now she was far too paranoid to actually travel on it. They kept to the shade of the trees, keeping the road within their sights to keep them from getting lost. A good thing too, as a handful of dragons had flown overhead obviously moving too and from the Guild base in Marineford.

She thanked her lucky stars that Veles wasn’t an obnoxious color like Red or Yellow that would stand out among the trees and catch the Dragon Kin’s attention. They were too close to their goal for someone to stop them now, and she still wasn’t sure what their reception would be if someone spotted her with a dragon when she wasn’t part of their Guild.

Still she should’ve felt relieved now that their goal was in sight. The only thing she was feeling though was dread, dread for the upcoming loss she was about to experience as she surrendered her little Draclet. Admittedly he wasn’t so little anymore at over a hundred and fifty pounds, but he was still her baby, still her best friend and family.

Over and over she repeated that she was doing what was best for him, he needed a real trained Dragon Kin, not her. The thought didn’t stop the tears that pooled in her eyes at the thought of leaving him behind though.

Veles noticed her distress, and she did her best to explain it to him, but despite his newfound understanding of the language, he just didn’t seem to be comprehending what she was saying. Either that or he was in fervent denial it was a bit hard to tell. Still it was heartbreaking.

Thus when the gates of the walled city of Marineford finally came into view it took all she could not to break down sobbing. She forced herself to take several deep breaths and drop into her meditation to center herself.

When she pulled out of it she noticed her Draclet looking up at her with concerned golden eyes. Bracing herself she patted his head reassuringly, pressing loving kisses to his face and firming her resolve. This was for him. Everything she’d done up to this point had been for him, and she’d abandoned her village, escaped packs of howling wolves and fought an enormous Cave Bear, she could face down Marineford for him.

“Stay here,” she told him firmly, “Don’t move, don’t let anyone see you until I call okay.”

Veles hesitated, but when she frowned he nodded and sank back into the shadows to wait. In turn she climbed on to the road and began to carefully approach the gates.

The walls of Marineford were enormous, easily the biggest man-made structure she’d ever seen in her life, at least fifty feet tall, and sheer. There would be no climbing these walls. The gate was also enormous and had a retractable portcullis with a guard stationed at a small tower built into the wall. Glancing up she could see the tiny figures of guards patrolling the walls above as well.

She could tell the moment they spotted her as there was a flurry of movement at the gatehouse, and a careful guard stepped out to greet her. He was an intimidating man wearing a grey suit under the white coat that the Government Guild all sported, and a grey hat that cast a shadow obscuring his eyes. He wore what looked like a katana at his hip and stood in the middle of the path between her and the gate with his arms crossed, obviously waiting for her.

Taking a deep breath for courage, and straightening her spine she walked towards him refusing to be intimidated. This was all for Veles, he needed her to make the best possible impression here, she couldn’t afford to screw up.

With that in mind she walked right up to him and waited for acknowledgment. The silence stretched between them, but she refused to back down, waiting for him to speak first.

“Something I can help you with little lady?” he finally asked politely.

A part of her wanted to bristle at the diminutive, but he’d been polite and she could offer him the same courtesy.

“Yes, I need to see Monkey D. Garp as soon as possible please.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys sorry for the wait! I got a little distracted by some other stories! Stories that I will be posting shortly after updating all of these, so if you've got the time and inclination please check them out! :)  
> Also I've made myself a tumblr account under the same name EvenescentTranquility, mostly so I can tumblr stalk some of my favorite authors, but if you've got questions, comments, critiques, suggestions, or just want to be friends, feel free to hit me up over there. If people are interested enough I might even post previews of things over there :).


	6. Chapter 6

The man startled at her directness and then frowned, or at least she thought he frowned, it was hard to tell with the hat shading his eyes, “What do you need Garp for?”

“I have a letter for him,” she told him politely, carefully producing the parchment from her tunic so he could see it.

“I could take that to him,” the man told her stepping forward and extending a hand.

“I was told not to let anyone take this from me but Monkey D. Garp sir,” she told him firmly but politely, cradling it close to her.

“I don’t think…” the man began only to be cut off by a loud yell.

“Bogard! Bogard what’s taking you so long? I want my rice crackers!” the yell had started off sternly, but had ended sounding more like a whiney toddler than a superior Guild Member.

The man in front of her groaned and pressed a finger to his temple in exasperation. Huffing a sigh he took in her appearance. She could see him lingering on the dirty patches and stains on her clothing, and the scar above her eye, but she refused to back down or be intimidated and something she had done must’ve met his approval because he called, “Garp! There’s someone here to see you!”

A head popped out of the guardhouse and was quickly followed by a body. A very large body as it happened. She stared up, and up craning her neck a bit to see him. She was no shortie herself standing a respectable 5’9” but he was really, really tall. At least seven foot with the shoulders to match. It was clear the man was all muscle, and he cut an intimidating figure despite being seemingly unarmed.

“Someone wants me?” he asked confused as he moved over next to the man who was apparently called Bogard, “Do I know you?”

“Dr. Kureha told me to give this to you,” she told him, more than a bit nervous but refusing to back down, offering the letter to him fighting back a wince as he eyed the bloodstains on the paper and then her.

“There was a bit of a struggle to get it to you sir, but it should all be explained in there I hope,” she told him fingering the scar on her face unconsciously, which didn’t go unnoticed by either man.

He took it and carefully flicked it open, his eyebrows getting higher and higher the further down he read before focusing back on her, his sharp blue eyes taking her in, “You’re the (name) she mentioned I take it?”

“I am sir,” she told him firmly trying to keep the nervous quake out of her voice.

“I see, and where is this companion of yours?” he asked glancing around.

“I left him back behind the tree line,” she replied her hands clenching in her tunic nervously.

“Can you call him out?” he asked with a raised brow.

“Not until you swear to me no one’s going to hurt him, that he’s going to be okay and taken care of the right way,” she told him finding her nerve and clenching her fists at her side, looking him dead in the eye.

“Just him?” Garp questioned interested.

“He’s my responsibility and I promised he would be safe! He’s saved my life and I’ve saved his, and he deserves the best possible treatment, the best possible partner, and if he isn’t going to get it then I’ll tell him to run, to find somewhere else, I’ll fight you if I have to because his safety and happiness are all that matters,” she snapped her hands dropping to her belt where her knives lay, and Bogard’s dropping to his sword in response.

To her surprise though Garp just laughed, loud and long, nearly making her jump out of her skin, “Okay brat. I promise, no I swear on my name and on my dragon Ken, that neither you nor your companion will be harmed.”

She wasn’t sure what made her trust him, but something in her gut said she could. She nodded and turned back towards the forest, sensing her anxious Draclet just behind the tree line.

“Veles!” she called loudly enough she knew he’d be able to hear, “Veles it’s okay, you can come out.”

She kept her back to the two men as her Draclet emerged from the tree line and came trotting towards her quickly and obediently. Though she couldn’t see them she did hear Bogard as he began to swear in shock as her beautiful dragon companion, scales gleaming in the sun, reached her feet.

He stared up at her worriedly. He’d never met any humans outside her and Kureha she knew, and so she gently ran a hand along his head and neck, reassuring him in gentle whispers before turning back to the two men. More had emerged from the Gatehouse as she reassured the Draclet and were now openly gaping at the two of them. She kept a firm but gentle hand on Veles to keep him settled.

“So this is the Draclet hmm?” Garp asked grinning, “He’s a bit bigger than I expected from Kureha’s note.”

“We had some trouble with predators,” she admitted with a grimace, “We had to stop and get ourselves patched up and healed before we could travel again.”

“Interesting jewelry,” Garp remarked casually eying their matching necklaces, which she grasped defensively.

“Well earned trophy,” she informed him bluntly.

“Impressive, he’s certainly a fine specimen, you seem to have done well with him,” he told her. 

“He is pretty amazing,” she told him smiling fondly as she caught Veles preening out of the corner of her eye.

“You intend to leave him with us then?” Garp asked.

“If you’ll have him,” she told him, trying to fight the sadness that was once again beginning to curdle in her belly.

“You’re not his Dragon Kin?” Bogard blurted apparently surprised.

“No I’m not. I found him in the woods while I was out hunting. I brought him here because I thought it would be the best place for him,” she replied steeling herself as best she could.

“We’ll certainly take him, we would never turn down a new dragon, especially not one as well developed as this one, even if he is a little old for bonding,” Garp told her thoughtfully, “But what exactly is it you intend to do with yourself now? Kureha said you can’t go back home.”

“I figured I’d maybe travel for a while, then find a town to settle in,” she told him after a long pause, because honestly so much of her focus had been on getting Veles here she hadn’t thought about what to do with herself after, “It should be a lot easier to travel now that I won’t be attacked right and left, and I’ll hopefully be able to use the roads this time too.”

“You didn’t use the roads?” Bogard asked skeptically, “I find that hard to believe.”

“Believe it or not, but that’s what we did, it wasn’t safe to travel on the road with a little Draclet I didn’t want him or me to come to any harm,” she explained with a shrug.

“Did you want to maybe stay a while before you travel? Rest up a bit?” Garp asked surprisingly gently, and she could hear the actual offer, ‘give her more time to day goodbye.’

“No, I better not,” she told him, fighting every instinct that was screaming at her to say yes, to stay with Veles as long as possible. However she knew dragging it out would just make things worse and probably confuse her poor Draclet. Best to make a clean break, for the both of them, “If you don’t mind I’ll just say my goodbyes and be on my way.”

Garp nodded solemnly, and so she turned and knelt down on the ground so she could be closer to eye level with her Draclet, who was looking at her confused.

“Okay Veles, you’re here, this is Marineford, it’s the home of one of the Dragon Guilds, you remember? We talked about it,” she prompted fighting viciously to keep the wobble out of her voice and her eyes dry as the not so little Draclet nodded.

“So you’re going to go with this nice man, and he’s going to introduce you to some people, people who are trained to be Dragon Kin, and you’re going to pick one. You’re going to be their partner from then on and you’ll train together to be strong,” she told him gently running her hands along his scales soothingly, memorizing the feel of them beneath her hands, as it would likely be the last time she got to feel anything like it.

“So strong those stupid Cave Bears won’t even think about attacking you anymore,” she said with a wry smile.

“So, promise me you’ll do your best okay? That you’ll train hard, pick a good partner, and get really strong, and maybe someday we’ll see each other again okay?” she asked gently giving him one last pat and pressing a kiss to his nose she moved to stand, and turn to go, only to be stopped as Veles moved around in front of her, a confused whine, leaving his throat.

“No, no,” she told him mustering as much firmness as she could manage given her throat was trying to clog with tears, “You’re staying here. Here where you’ll be safe, where someone who knows what they’re doing can look after you. I’m not that person Veles. This is what’s best for you, even if right now it might not seem that way to you.”

She moved to go again, only to be stopped by his teeth carefully latching on to the back of her shirt, pulling her up short. Veles was making the same gentle pleading sounds that she only vaguely remembered from after their fight with the Cave Bear, and it was heartbreaking, so much so that she desperately wanted to turn around and scoop him into her arms and stay, but she couldn’t, she wouldn’t.

She steeled her heart reminding herself once more that this was what was best and said in the iciest voice she could muster, “Veles, let go.”

She was released, and she breathed a sigh of relief, though it was a bit shaky with unshed tears as she took one step then another, determined to get herself going and reach the edge of the tree line out of sight before she allowed herself to breakdown and cry.

Pain lanced up her arm, and down her spine, and she yelped and turned in shock, to see that Veles had finally managed to do what he had been trying to do since the day he met her. His sharp teeth were firmly embedded in the meat of her palm. The palm that had been left uncovered after her gloves got ruined in the fight with the Cave Bear.

She wanted to scold him, wanted to demand to know what he was doing. Weren’t they friends? Why was he biting her? But no words were able to make it past her lips, other than a small strangled cry of pain. The bite hurt far worse than she thought it should have, sending lancing shockwaves through her entire body.

It burned, and the sensation was spreading, creeping up her wrist and arm, spreading through her torso, and down her limbs. It felt like every nerve was being set on fire, like she was being roasted alive. It was worse than most anything she’d ever experienced, except for the Cave Bear incident, though then at least she’d had adrenalin to take the edge off some of the pain.

Darkness was beginning to swim at the edge of her vision, and she tried to fight it, reminding herself that she had to go, had to get Veles to let go and leave. However she couldn’t seem to fight it off, and the blackness overtook her, her body slumping to the ground in a dead faint.

…~oO*Oo~…

Sengoku sat at his desk, carefully studying the papers in front of him and trying not to sigh. Really, was the requisition of cabbages really so important that it needed him, the head of the guild, to deal with it? Frankly he didn’t think so, but others seemed to, which was why he’d wasted the last half hour of his life trying to figure out how to import cabbages from the surrounding farmlands.

It was frustrating to say the least, and not at all what he’d expected when he’d agreed to take over the Guild Head position when the last one decided to retire. A soft huff of breath had him reaching out to pat his Dragon, Sonny on the head. He understood, he was bored and restless too.

Fortunately or unfortunately his boredom ended suddenly, and with a loud bang as his office door was knocked off its’ hinges and on to the floor. He glanced up and groaned as he saw who was standing there.

He may consider Garp a friend, but the man was a pain in the ass to deal with even at the best of times. He just had to hope that Bogard, Garp’s sensible second in command would keep the man on an even keel.

“Garp, how many times do I have to ask you to please use the door?” Sengoku asked with an aggravated sigh.

“I did use the door,” Garp informed him a confused frown on his face.

“I meant use the door properly, in the way it was meant to be used,” Sengoku pointed out, then sighed at the absolutely baffled look on Garp’s face, “Never mind, what did you want Garp?”

“Ah I just stopped by to tell you I’m taking on a new recruit,” Garp told him with a beaming smile.

“A new recruit? Garp you’re already training those two idiots, and your limit is two, you can’t just take on recruits from wherever, whenever you want to,” Sengoku informed him, feeling the headache begin to form at his temples, that Garp nearly always managed to induce, “And besides we have the max number of recruits for dragons this year, as it is a couple of them won’t be getting a partner, we can’t just add another one in.”

“Fine then, Bogard is taking on a new recruit,” Garp informed him stubbornly.

“Bogard isn’t allowed to take on recruits, because the number of recruits allowed is based on the squad not the individual Garp, so I’ll say it again, your squad already has the max number of recruits allowed, especially since two at once is pushing it, you know that!” Sengoku snapped in annoyance.

“Well whose squad doesn’t have a recruit?” Garp asked finally after a moment’s silence in which Sengoku had really hoped that for once, just once Garp had given up.

“It doesn’t matter Garp, because we really can’t be taking on a new recruit,” Sengoku informed him annoyed.

“What about that new Vice Admiral? The one that brat Aokiji trained with the cigars, Sokey? Smoken?” Garp asked charging right along and refusing to listen to a word Sengoku said, as per usual.

“Smoker, doesn’t have a recruit right now,” Sengoku admitted heaving a sigh, “But only because his ensign graduated from the training program, and is being loaned short-term to another squad.”

“Perfect,” Garp said with a beaming smile, “I’ll go talk to him right now, he owes me a favor anyway.”

So saying Garp barged his way out of the office, leaving a Garp-shaped hole in the wall, not even bothering to go out through the already ruined doorway. Sengoku’s head dropped into his hands and he massaged his temples trying to ease the pain away. Friend or not, one of these days he was going to strangle that man!

“Excuse me fleet admiral,” a voice spoke up, and Sengoku glanced up, surprised to see that Bogard was still standing there. He’d expected the quiet man to go after Garp as usual, but apparently not.

“Something else?” he asked with a sigh, “Please tell me you aren’t thinking of retiring or asking for reassignment?”

“No, it’s about the new recruit,” Bogard told him calmly, his face unreadable as usual beneath that hat of his.

“What about them?” Sengoku asked with a sigh, “Don’t tell me they’re going to be an even bigger headache than they already are. I can already hear the other recruits whining about their inclusion, and how they might ‘steal’ one of their rightful dragons.”

“About that sir, on that front, there’s no need to worry,” Bogard informed him dryly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he demanded with a frown.

“It means she came with one, a dragon that is,” Bogard replied a slight frown on his face.

“A defector from another Guild?” Sengoku asked incredulously, because yes, they happened, but usually the Guild in question was more than capable of hunting down the defector and exterminating them.

“No, actually,” Bogard told him, still frowning, “From what I could tell from the letter, that was addressed directly to Garp by the way, apparently from an old friend, the girl claims to have found a baby Draclet in the woods by itself, and was bringing it here for us to find a Dragon Kin for it.”

Sengoku sat back in his chair, shocked. A Draclet found in the wild? Such a thing was completely unheard of! “But she’s the new recruit? Does that mean she decided to bond to the dragon before they arrived?”

“No actually, that’s the strange part, she was intending to leave the Draclet here with us, but he refused to let her go. She was walking away when he initiated a bonding bite,” Bogard explained, the incredulity in his voice plain to hear. Sengoku couldn’t blame him, he’d never heard of a situation like this one, not in the entire history of the Guild.

“I see,” he murmured rubbing his chin thoughtfully, “So if we want them, we’re stuck with both of them, not just the Dragon, which would’ve been preferable, and of course we want them. I can’t think of a single idiot who would throw away the opportunity to add an unexpected Dragon and Kin to their Guild. But if she’s not a defector she’s a civilian, which leads me to question how much if any potential she has.”

“From what I could tell she was pretty much an untrained civilian, but she claimed to have made it here from her hometown, one I believe to be quite a distance away on foot with the Draclet through the woods on her own. Both she and the little dragon are wearing what appears to be Cave Bear teeth around their necks in what she claimed was a trophy of some kind,” Bogard explained.

“Ah, no wonder Garp was wanting to get his hands on her, plenty of potential in that if what she says is true, though the question then becomes how the hell an ordinary civilian managed a feat like that,” Sengoku admitted with a frown.

“I think that she is perhaps an experienced hunter, she carried a bow with ease, and she had hunting knives strapped to her waist, obviously well used,” Bogard tacked on, “And, if I may say so. I have never seen a stronger bond between a Dragon and a human who was not already Kin, not ever.”

Sengoku nodded slowly. Unlike Garp, Bogard wasn’t the kind of man to exaggerate, not ever, so for him to say such a thing about the bond meant it must be powerful indeed, “And where is the girl now?”

“Infirmary,” Bogard told him, “She passed out after the Draclet intiated the bond.”

“Not surprising, many of the recruits do,” Sengoku admitted, “And the Draclet went with her I assume?”

“He did,” Bogard confirmed with a nod, “It’s worth noting that it took quite some time to convince the Draclet to let us take her there. The thing was fiendishly fast, and extraordinarily protective. Despite not knowing how to care for one, it’s obvious she’s done a fantastic job raising him.”

Sengoku nodded once more, “Very well, tell Smoker if he tries to refuse that I ordered he take her on. Frankly he’s one of the very few available right now, and it would be a shame to let potential like that go to waste. I have some questions for the girl, I think we all do, but they can wait. Please don’t let Garp terrorize the Vice Admiral for too long, he’s one of the good ones and I don’t want to lose him.”

A fleeting smirk crossed Bogard’s face as he nodded, then saluted and left the office, leaving Sengoku to his thoughts.

“I suppose we’ll just have to see what happens with this girl Sonny,” Sengoku murmured, reaching his hand out to pat his dragon’s head, thankful his predecessor had assured there was a window large enough for a good sized dragon to poke their head through and rest comfortably, “I just hope she isn’t as much of a headache as Garp.”

Sonny snorted in reply, and Sengoku nodded in reply. No one could be as much of a headache as Garp, or at least, he hoped not.

…~oO*Oo~…

Smoker stared down at the girl in the infirmary bed unsure what to think of his new charge. He’d been informed she would be in his care for the next year, the length of time Tashigi would be gone, and she was his to train as he saw fit. Admittedly he hadn’t expected to be asked to take a recruit on, since there were only so many junior officers allowed in a squad, and he’d only just been promoted high enough to be trusted with the green recruits.

He’d expected Tashigi to have come back before he got one, and had hoped to be able to fob off some of the inevitable questions, and beginning training sessions on her, the only one in his squad he trusted to do the job right. He’d also hoped she’d be a bit of a buffer for him, since he knew he could come off gruff sometimes, especially since the green recruit he’d been handed was female.

Now he had nothing against female recruits, though they were few and far between. After all Hina would’ve kicked his ass, and Tashigi was pretty much his right hand. However that she was female meant she was going to be even harder to coach without pushing too hard because he couldn’t read females the way he could men.

Add to that, that this was a strange case to begin with and he was more than a bit stumped on where exactly this was going to go, and how. On the bright side according to Garp the girl had a lot of potential, and she was definitely tough, if the scars, and Cave Bear tooth necklace were any indication.

Plus she already had a dragon, which relieved the pressure of being chosen by one at the end of base training. Speaking of whom, the Draclet, who was a decent size for his age, and fierce as hell besides, was sitting at the head of the bed, cuddled close to his Dragon Kin, and leveling a dangerous glare at anyone who got too close, including Smoker himself.

The medics had tried to give the girl a physical, worried about her slightly rough condition, but the Dragon hadn’t allowed anyone to touch her outside of Garp who’d carried her to the infirmary. Anyone who tried was brutally savaged, the one idiot doctor who’d refused to listen to the warnings the Draclet was giving would probably be scarred for life. Not that Smoker felt any pity for him, any Doctor, especially a Guild Doctor should know when dragons could be pushed when it came to their Kin, and when they could not. This was obviously a not, situation.

While the Dragon made some things easier it also made some things more complicated. She wouldn’t have to worry about getting one after basic training that was true enough, however from what he understood she didn’t have any basic training, period. 

This combined with the fact that she had her partner already was not going to make it easy for her to make friends. He really wished Tashigi was here, then at least both of them would have someone to look out for them, not that he wouldn’t try, she was his charge now, so by god he would try, but he couldn’t be everywhere. She was bound to take a lot of flack from the other recruits for it, because of their jealousy.

Still she looked like a fighter, and he got the feeling that the times she wouldn’t stand up for herself, the Dragon certainly would. Hopefully it would also teach the recruits a valuable lesson about interacting with Draclets.

Taking one last look at her, he ordered the head medic to fetch him immediately when she woke, so that he could speak with her, as her new commanding officer she was officially his responsibility. That done he set off to make sure her rooms were being prepped and to find his own trainer Aokiji, hopefully the oft times lazy admiral would have some advice on what to do and where to start with his new trainee.

…~oO*Oo~…

Veles sat curled around his human, waiting for her to regain consciousness. He was looking forward to and dreading her wakening, because while it would be good to see her up again, he also knew she was very likely to scold him again. He’d lost count of the times she’d told him not to bite her during their trip from the time she’d found him as a baby.

However he had been determined. He had chosen her as his partner from the minute he accepted the lovely dried meat from her hand that first day they met, and he wasn’t about to give her up. Everything they’d been through since then had just proven he’d made a good choice. His human was fierce, smart, and tough, while also being gentle and loving. She was perfect for him.

He just didn’t understand why she hadn’t thought so. He knew it was herself she found lacking when it came to the idea of being his partner, and he didn’t like that not one bit. Admittedly he’d hoped to have the time to convince her to be his partner and get her consent first.

However when it became apparent she was actually serious about leaving him behind he’d decided enough was enough. He wasn’t letting her leave him behind. It was done now, the bond had taken, and even if she was mad for a while she’d forgive him eventually he was sure.

Gently he nosed her face in affection watching over her as she slept peacefully. He knew the strangers around were worried about her sleeping so long, but what they didn’t understand was that his human hadn’t slept properly in a long, long time, probably not since she’d first rescued him. Between her nightmares, and their constantly hunted state he was a bit surprised she’d managed to sleep at all.

Even with the new bond between them assuring her they were safe, for the most part, she would still likely wake sometime soon. Purring softly under his breath to her, he watched the humans she’d brought them to flit about, all of them eyeing him warily.

Honestly he was pretty smug about that, serve them right for trying to touch his human without permission. He only wished he had been big enough to carry her himself when the big smiling man from before had said she needed to not be lying in the middle of the road. He’d grudgingly let the man lift her, but he’d kept his eyes on him the whole way inside. One false move and he would’ve bitten his hands off.

Admittedly he didn’t know much about humans, having only really met his human, and the really old human before coming here, but he was so far unimpressed. He’d long ago decided his own human was something special, but being around these other humans had certainly driven the point home.

After all his human didn’t run away or balk in the face of injury, or leak water from her eyes the way the stupid human who refused to go away and had tried touching his human without permission had. His human hadn’t even cried when the thing she called Cave Bear had attacked them, his human had fought back instead, as was right.

The only humans he’d met so far that were even remotely interesting outside of his human and the old one, was the smiling man, the smiling man’s friend with the funny thing on his head, and the strange human who had the smoking stick in his mouth, that smelled really funny.

The last one had stared at his human for a long time, something Veles hadn’t appreciated at all. If she wasn’t in such a vulnerable position he would’ve challenged the funny smelling man. Either way he didn’t care much for him, something about the way he smelled made Veles want to sneeze.

It was a much inferior scent to his human’s, who even when she had been covered in blood, both her own and others, had still smelled wonderful to him. It was a combination of his favorite chewy meat, earth, rain, and something a little like those bright things his human told him were flowers. She smelled like home to him.

A soft sound reached his ears, and glancing down at his human, he realized she was finally waking up. He gave one last fierce warning hiss at the humans around them, so they wouldn’t come close, and turned all his attention to his human hoping she wouldn’t be too mad at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Sorry this took so long, it's been a really busy couple of weeks. I wanted to take a second and thank everyone who left comments/Kudos/bookmarked/subscribed to this fic you guys are awesome! I also want to thank everyone who followed me over on Tumblr under the username EvenescentTranquility. I've had a couple of really great conversations with people over there and really appreciate the feedback they've given as well.


	7. Chapter 7

(Name) woke feeling surprisingly well rested, and wondering how long she’d been asleep and why she’d been asleep in the first place. She opened her eyes groggily in an attempt to figure out what was going on, only to see a familiar reptilian face peering down at her, with worried golden eyes. He appeared to be standing above her head somehow, but she didn’t take the time to figure it out as the events from before came rushing back.

“You bit me!” she snapped annoyed, and was surprised to feel a strange deluge of emotions, images and concepts that didn’t belong to her, hit her mind. It was strange, foreign, and the only reason she didn’t freak out at the sudden invasion was because of the strange humming purr that accompanied the sensation in her mind.

“Veles?” she asked confused, and immediately received a happy positive feeling in reply, still accompanied by that gentle humming sensation.

“How the hell are you in my head?” she questioned completely baffled.

Another deluge hit her, but this time at least she was a little more ready, and was able to sort out bits and pieces of it. She could tell some of it was images, though they were extremely strange, and she finally realized it was because the angle was off, she was looking at things from a much shorter viewpoint. Veles’ viewpoint if she wasn’t mistaken.

She watched fascinated as he replayed the scene of her attempting to leave him from his point of view. Only she could feel the things he did, his confusion, hurt, and even a bit of anger at the idea of being left alone without her, only to be swamped by overwhelming determination and the single thought of _Mine!_ as Veles lunged for her hand.

After she was surprised to see the picture keep going, as she crumpled to the ground, and was able to get a good look at the reactions of the people around, who appeared quite shocked, that is until Garp started laughing and going on and on about potential and ‘Dragon Kin.’ If Veles’ possessive thoughts hadn’t already made things clear that would’ve done it for her.

So that was how a human became a Dragon Kin? A bite? But Veles had been trying to bite her from day one!

Apparently he heard that thought and she was treated to a running montage of attempted bites from Veles’ point of view, obviously his memories, and his mounting frustration when she scolded him for each failed attempt. Seen from an outsider’s point of view they could almost be construed as funny.

However she wasn’t exactly in a laughing mood, too overwhelmed by the idea that she was now a Dragon Kin, to really think to far beyond that, except when she realized that she was obviously somewhere in the Government Guild’s headquarters and they were likely very unhappy with her.

She almost panicked, worried about the consequences and what would happen to the two of them now, but was immediately reassured by the presence of the not-so-little Draclet, as he climbed into her lap, pressing his forehead to hers affectionately and promising to protect her. They were partners now after all right?

She might’ve continued to panic but she had heard the note of uncertainty in Veles’ mind speech, and her first instinct, which was to comfort him, tamped down on her panic, as she assured the little Draclet that of course she wanted to be his partner, she just wasn’t sure if she’d be a very good one.

Veles wasn’t impressed by that line of thinking and was quick to remind her of all the things they’d gone through together, assuring her they could do this, so long as they did it together. 

Feeling his absolute confidence in her was a little shocking to be honest. She hadn’t realized how strong his feelings for her were, and to feel them? It was really kind of amazing, to be able to know with absolute certainty that in this form of communication at least they couldn’t lie or deceive one another. That anything they passed between the two of them like this would be absolutely truthful.

After the betrayal of her so-called family it was an assurance that she was extremely grateful to have, the same way she was grateful to have come across her friend and partner.

Veles hummed in pleased acknowledgment, butting his head up against hers, and urging her to pet him, assuring her that they were partners, now and forever and nothing anyone could do would change it now. It was funny and more than a bit humbling to realize just how much he loved her, and completely unconditionally as well. She could only hope he understood he meant just as much to her, though from his pleased purring he obviously did.

Quickly he caught her up on the rest of what had happened while she was unconscious and about his little tussle with one of the doctors. She wanted to scold him for that, but he was so smug about it, it was honestly hard to be mad, and even if she’d tried he’d have known she didn’t really mean it.

She was pleased he’d thought to bring all their stuff in, and that it was sitting at the end of the bed she’d been put in. After all that was all the things she owned really, and to lose them would’ve stunk, even if most things were replaceable.

The sound of a throat clearing interrupted her exchange with Veles and she turned to see several men standing at the foot of her bed. Two she recognized as Garp and the one he’d called Bogard, and a third she recognized as the one Veles had dubbed “the funny smelling man” though through a quick exchange with the Draclet she realized they didn’t know the fourth at all.

Considering everyone was looking at him, he was obviously the one who’d made the noise, and he also looked to be the one in charge, even if he was awfully strange looking. He was wearing what appeared to be a stuffed seagull on his hat, and if that wasn’t strange she didn’t know what was.

“Welcome to Marineford,” he told her formally, “If you are finished reconnecting with your Draclet we have a few questions for you.”

She nodded, pulling Veles close when he growled at the man, and urging him to be quiet and patient so they could see what this group of men wanted from her. What followed was a thorough interrogation of what had happened to bring her and Veles to Marinford, starting from the moment she met the dragon.

Figuring honestly was the best policy she didn’t leave anything out, from her step-family’s betrayal, to their run-in with a couple of Joker’s goonies, to their struggles with predators in the woods. Several times they made her stop and clarify, or asked her the same question in a different way, trying to force her to recall as many details as possible.

Veles was an excellent help with this, he remembered things when she didn’t and could send her clear mental images to help remind her what things looked like when she stumbled or forgot.

She got the feeling they were half trying to ascertain what happened to her, and half trying to make sure she wasn’t hiding anything from them. It was a good thing she’d decided to be honest from the beginning because otherwise some of the trickier questions probably would’ve tripped her up.

When they were finally done her throat was dry and she was feeling exhausted again. Veles wasn’t too happy either, not liking the stress she’d been feeling.

She was more than a bit surprised when the ‘funny smelling one” the one they’d eventually introduced as Smoker, stalked off for a second, then reappeared with a glass of water. She took it gratefully, sipping the cool water to soothe her throat. She wasn’t used to talking so much at one time anymore, not after spending over a month in the forest with just a nonverbal Veles for company.

“What’ going to happen to us now?” she asked when she finally got her voice back, “Veles already told me he chose me as his Kin, but what do I do now?”

“Now you train!” Garp told her cheerfully, “You’re actually going to have to go through basic training, same as any other potential Kin, even though you already have a Draclet of your own, and after that you’ll be assigned to Smoker’s squad, and he’ll begin your advanced training.”

“It was decided that Smoker would be your mentor in this, we expect you to follow his direction to the letter, learn about the Guild, learn about Dragons, learn to fight and become a productive, useful, reliable member of the Guild,” the one in charge, who she’d eventually figured out was the Guild Head Sengoku told her firmly.

She nodded slowly, and that seemed to be good enough for the Guild head because he latched on to Garp, and dragged him from the building, with the large man whining like a toddler the entire way, Bogard on their heels. Only Smoker stayed behind.

“Well,” he told her gruffly, “As they said I’m your mentor, which means I’m responsible for you. I won’t go easy on you, you’re a Dragon Kin already yes, but you’ve got a long way to go to catch up with the other green recruits. I expect you to work hard every day, and to come straight to me with any problems, concerns or questions.”

“However, now isn’t the time for that, you’re exhausted again, so unless you want to spend another night in the infirmary you can get your stuff and follow me,” he told her moving towards the edge of the room and pausing to wait, “I’ve had your quarters prepared for you already, let’s go.”

Feeling a bit intimidated she did as he said, kicking off the covers and grabbing her things, handing some of the bags to Veles who wanted to be helpful. They quickly trotted after the man whose longer legs meant they were forced to jog a bit to keep even with him.

She tried to keep track of where they were going, but with all the turns they were making she couldn’t seem to keep it straight. At one point she was almost certain he was leading her in circles. She had to wonder if they’d built the inside of this place like a maze on purpose or if it had been an unhappy accident. It didn’t help that everything from the bland white walls, to solid oak doors looked the same.

“This is your room,” he informed her, palming a key and slipping it into the lock of a door that looked identical to every other door in the hall, pushing it open so she could see inside.

It was rather plain, with a bed, desk, chair, and small set of drawers for clothing along with a small closet and bookshelf. There was another small door off to the side that she guessed led to the bathroom. The walls were plain off-white, and the bed was covered in plain white sheets and dull grey comforter. The floor was polished darker wood, with all the furniture a lighter wooden color. All in all it looked kind of barren and plain.

“It’s not much,” Smoker told her with a shrug, “But it’s a place to rest your head and keep your things. You’re allowed to change things when you have free time, but don’t expect that often. Between lessons and homework you’ll be kept busy.”

She nodded slowly going into the room and tossing her things carefully on to the bed before turning back to the man who was apparently going to be her mentor. He held out the key to the door for her to take and warned, “Always lock your door, and expect at least a little hazing. It happens to all new recruits, females especially. If you feel they cross a line, don’t be afraid to tell me.”

“Yes sir,” she agreed, inwardly wondering what they’d try to do to her. Pranks she suspected. Veles snorted in her mind, telling her that if they thought it would be easy to prank her with him around they had another thing coming. Amused and comforted she gently patted his head before turning back to Smoker who was eyeing the two of them with interest.

“Take the rest of the night to settle in,” he ordered gruffly, “Get your bearings and such. Tomorrow morning I will come fetch you at five, be ready to go. I will give you a tour and then we will do some tests to see where your skills are as far as combat goes. Be ready for a hard days work.”

“Yes sir,” she repeated wondering a bit anxiously what all he intended to test her on. After all she knew very little about what Dragon Kin actually did, other than protect their territories from other Guilds that is.

Veles purred at her, assuring her that even if they weren’t great right away they’d figure things out. She pet his head appreciating his faith in her and wishing she could have the same kind of faith.

“If you have no questions for me I’ll be on my way,” he informed her, still eyeing her like he wasn’t quite sure what to make of her.

“No questions sir,” she told him politely.

He nodded abruptly and strode off down the hall. She closed and locked the door in his wake letting out a breath of relief to finally be alone.

“He was kind of intimidating huh?” she asked Veles absently.

Her little dragon sneezed in disgust, informing her he wasn’t so much intimidating as he was stinky. She laughed, and headed for the bathroom. She was pleased to see an actual bath tub there and a decent sized one as well. 

She was surprised to see strange looking metal things on the tub, and she turned one and nearly jumped out of her skin as water began running out of the pipe which led to the bottom of the tub. Sticking her finger in it she was surprised to find the water was actually warm.

This explained the lack of fireplace in her rooms to warm her bathwater over she supposed, though she did have to wonder where the warm water was actually coming from. She decided though that it was a puzzle for another day, playing with the taps a bit and discovering one got her cold water and the other hot, eventually finding a nice scalding temperature before settling in for a nice long bath sighing in relief.

She hadn’t had a real bath since before she’d left home for the hunt she’d met Veles on. To have one now felt like a luxury despite not having the nice smelling soaps she would’ve used back home, stuck using the plain ones they supplied. At least by the end of it she felt clean for what felt like the first time in a long time.

Heading back into the bedroom she decided if she was going to have to get up at five o’clock in the morning she’d best get to sleep now considering she was still exhausted from bonding with Veles. Still before she lay her head down she fished out the Cave Bear skin from her bags and spread it over the bed.

Even if it was only brown it was nice to see some color in the room, comforting even. Quickly she changed into her pajamas and settled under the covers with Veles crawling in after her, snuggling up close. Feeling his reassuring presence both at her side and in her mind she fell asleep quickly too tired to be worried about the tests coming in the morning.

…~oO*Oo~…

Smoker was pleased that when he knocked the next morning the door was immediately opened. The new recruit appeared ready to go, dressed in sensible long pants, boots, and a dark green tunic. Her bow and quiver were strapped on to her back, and daggers were belted at her waist, and her hair was pulled back in a tight, practical braid.

He nodded in approval as she stepped out into the hall and locked the door behind her, a bit surprised to see she immediately latched the key on to her Draclet’s necklace of Cave Bear teeth and claws. She was right though, if anyone was going to try hazing her by pickpocketing her key, they wouldn’t dare try to take it from around her dragon’s neck, even if he was a small dragon at the moment.

Amused he led her on a tour, nodding to the few people who were actually up this early in the morning. He could tell she was a bit confused, and couldn’t blame her, the place was built like a maze in case of intruders but it made life a pain until you finally figured out how to navigate yourself around.

He showed her all the areas that would be important to her, the classrooms, training grounds, and his own rooms, along with a few of the meeting rooms at headquarters in case she was ever sent there. After they stopped for breakfast in the mess hall, which was a fairly quiet affair, considering it was still early. Most didn’t wake until eight, and it was only seven thirty.

After a quick light breakfast he led her out on to the training grounds and began her testing. He was more than a little surprised at the results. Despite the things she’d told them yesterday he honestly hadn’t been expecting much, but in terms of physical fitness he knew she’d be at the top of her group of peers.

She had very good stamina, and her strength was above average, for a Dragon Kin recruit, which was surprising considering she was a female civilian. Her speed was decent too, and he could suddenly see why she’d been able to escape the wolf packs that had hunted the two of them on their way here.

Unfortunately her staff work, swordsmanship, hand to hand and horseback riding skills were pretty abysmal and or nonexistent in the case of swordsmanship, and he could see they’d have a long way ahead of them when it came to getting her on par with her group.

Luckily her bow work, and some excellent knife skills more than made up for the lack. Her knife skills were decent, but her skill with a bow was nearly prodigious, even the archery master who’d been supervising the tests had been impressed and excited about her skill. It turned out, upon questioning her that it was just as Bogard had said, she was a huntress. A surprising occupation for a female civilian, but apparently she’d been learning forest craft pretty much since she could walk.

After the physical tests came the written ones, though not before they’d grabbed lunch in the mess hall. Several people had approached to ask Smoker about his new recruit. He’d mostly brushed them all off though, only answering a couple of questions. She seemed content to remain quietly at his side and just observe. He would’ve thought she was shy or meek if he hadn’t seen the calculating stare she watched people with, obviously taking their measure, not at all intimidated by anyone who came to the table.

He supposed it helped though that her dragon had yet to leave her side. The young Draclet had even participated in some of the physical fitness tests that morning along side her. That was a bit surprising, but also useful as it had helped the masters watching to gauge his age and strength. After all she wasn’t the only one who was going to be getting lessons. Her dragon would need them too.

After lunch they went to one of the classrooms to meet the teachers for the bookwork classes. He was more than a little relieved that the girl was literate, he knew many civilians weren’t, and had been a bit worried. With that out of the way the teachers had handed over the tests one by one.

The results here were just as varied as they had been on the training grounds. She’d been very good at identifying plants, animals and medicines, even expounding on some of the rarer herbs in a way that had the teacher gushing happily. He’d gone on to give her a verbal test about emergency first aid, and had decided that she wouldn’t actually need to take his class because she knew more than even he did. He’d been a little off put by that at first, until she’d mentioned being trained by a passing doctor named Kureha. The man had then proceeded to gush all over her, apparently a big fan of her teacher, and had walked happily out the door with an improved recipe for bruise balm he was dying to make.

She was passable at dragon care, likely because she’d picked up a lot of it on her trip through the forest. He noted that her answers about young dragons were all very good but the older the dragon in question was the less likely she was to know the answers.

She was also half-way decent at math, apparently her doctor friend had taught her a bit of that as well, along with how to haggle with merchants. She didn’t know much of the intermediate or advanced stuff though she at least wouldn’t be behind.

Unfortunately she was absolutely abysmal when it came to politics, and lore. Which honestly if he thought about it wasn’t all that surprising. After all she came from a small isolated village who had no real need to know anything about Guild Politics, well away from that kind of thing, and Dragon lore was kept a closely guarded secret within the guild.

Fortunately her lore wasn’t absolutely necessary, and she’d be able to catch up with some reading recommended by the teacher, politics on the other hand wasn’t going to be so easy.

The poor teacher was nearly in tears as he read her answers, and when he finally handed over the test to Smoker to take a look he’d nearly choked on one of his cigars. As it was he had to fight to keep a straight face afterwards and not laugh, knowing the teacher wouldn’t have been very please with him if he’d done so. Still some of the girl’s answers were hilarious.

He could see why Garp would’ve liked her, it looked like in terms of politics she was just as straight minded and bullheaded as he was. Unfortunately Garp only got away with speaking up like he did because he was one of the more powerful members of the Guild. She didn’t have that luxury, at least for now, so she would have to learn to at least give lip service until she was.

He admitted if only to himself, that he probably wasn’t going to be setting the best example in this as he was known as a bit of a wild card himself. Still he’d do his best to at least instill in her when she could get away with speaking her mind, and when it would only get her and her little Draclet in trouble. It was the least he could do for his new recruit after all.

By the time they were done with the written tests the poor girl looked a bit wrung out. Not that he could blame her, they’d pushed her to her limits both physically and mentally today. Still she hadn’t made nearly as poor a showing as he’d feared. Oh they had a long way to go, that was for sure, but she had at least showed promise, enough that he could work with her at least.

“One last thing and then I’ll let you head back to your rooms,” Smoker told her as they rose from dinner. He was pleased to see her follow him without complaint, even though it was obvious she was dead on her feet, though it didn’t stop her dragon from throwing him dirty looks. He got the feeling that for whatever reason the Draclet didn’t like him much, not that it bothered him.

“This building here, is what we call the stables,” Smoker told her once they were outside. He was amused by the gaping expression on her face, apparently she knew what stables were for, but this was likely ten times bigger than any stable the small town girl had ever seen before.

“Your Draclet is small enough it’s best he stays with you for now, we like to keep them close, until they become to big to fit indoors and the mental connection stabilizes a bit more,” he told her as he walked toward the building and opened the door for her, “This is where the dragons stay when they can no longer fit inside buildings.”

He smiled as she eagerly stepped forward into the building, weariness apparently forgotten at the chance to see dragons. Even her Draclet let up on his glaring for a second as he hurried after her eager to see as well.

He found her frozen just inside the door, not that he could blame her. Fully grown dragons were enormous, the smallest was easily the size of an elephant, and the largest would’ve towered over fifty feet if they’d been standing. They were in all different colors too, from the brightest and flashiest of jewel tones, to the dullest browns and greys.

The Dragons were too accustomed to having people come in and out to bother putting up much fuss when someone new came in. Especially since due to their mental connections to their Kin they knew if they were being visited specifically or not.

The only types of dragons who would’ve really taken notice and reacted were the nesting mothers, and those were kept safely away from the rest to keep any dragon related accidents or injuries from happening. However one dragon had known they were coming, and Smoker watched as she peeled himself away from the wall, and walked over to where his recruit and her Draclet were standing.

To her credit the recruit didn’t back away or panic, holding very still as the thirty foot tall creature carefully lowered her head to sniff interestedly at both Draclet and recruit. To his surprise the recruit slowly offered her hands to the dragon who sniffed at them interestedly, and then accepted the small bit the recruit had apparently had in her pocket munching it happily.

Reaching slowly to see if the dragon might object she gently lay her hands on the creature’s neck, carefully rubbing the scales there. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the dragon began to purr loudly in pleasure, but once she figured out what it was, she kept up her ministrations.

_δ I like her δ_ his dragon, Corona’s voice whispered pleasantly across his mind like smoke in the breeze. _δ She is a very good scratcher and she smells lovely. δ ___

__“Recruit, this is Corona my dragon, Corona, the new recruit,” he introduced, not bothering to respond to the dragon’s observations, very impressed by how she’d handled the unknown dragon coming at her. More than one recruit had balked or fled at the sight of their mentor’s dragon coming at them when they were first introduced, thinking they were hostile, misreading their body language. It seemed the recruit had read Corona’s curiosity perfectly and reacted in exactly the right way. The fact that she’d had a bribe on her hadn’t hurt anything either._ _

__He suspected her past dealings with her own little Draclet, who appeared to be a touchy sort, had given her an edge up. He also reminded himself that she’d spent a month one on one with her Draclet with no Dragon Kin bond, she would’ve been forced to learn his body language in order to help keep both of them alive in hostile conditions, especially since they couldn’t talk mentally and dragon’s senses were so much better than humans._ _

__“She’s beautiful,” his charge told him, interrupting his thoughts her voice colored with awe, and Corona preened happily, she was a vain creature, not as vain as some, but vain enough. Then again it seemed most dragons were, at least to an extent._ _

__He had to agree though, his Corona was very beautiful, though he might be a bit biased. She was a mix of white, silver and gray, with brilliant blue eyes that showed starkly against her lighter scales. On a day when there were blue skies and puffy white clouds she blended right in with them, a fact that they’d used more than once to surprise an enemy._ _

__Her own dragon huffed unhappily, and she laughed clearly amused, pausing in her petting of Corona to reach down and gently scratch him too, offering him another bit of whatever she’d had in her pockets which he chowed down on with gusto._ _

__Watching the three of them he had the feeling his new trainee was going to do just fine here at Marineford. She was a natural with dragons in any case and the rest would come with time and training. Those he could and would provide her, all that was left was to get started._ _

__“Alright recruit, that’s enough, it’s time to be off to bed with you, breakfast is tomorrow at seven, and then you have classes at eight. You don’t want to be late on your first day, so it’s best to get a good night’s rest, hop to,” he ordered firmly._ _

__“Yes sir,” she replied obediently, giving Corona one last scratch before gesturing for her Draclet to follow her out the door._ _

_δ Bring her back again δ_ Corona ordered as he left _δAnd tell her to bring more treats! δ_

__Smoker huffed a laugh and decided to get her out of there before his dragon started liking her better than him._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always Thanks! to everyone who left Kudos/Comments or Subscribed!


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